Rihanna’s ANTI has been a good thing for Hov’s Tidal. The Jay Z-owned streaming music service signed up one million trial subscribers as part of a promotion with Samsung in a matter of hours on Thursday (Jan 28).
Rhianna released ANTI exclusively on Tidal late Wednesday night, and Samsung gave away one million free download codes on a first-come first-serve basis. Each of these downloads came with a 60-day free trial to Tidal.
Codes were all used up by the early afternoon, but Rihanna fans can still stream the album for free on Tidal, or buy the album as a download for $11.99. The album was streamed more than 13 million times during the first 14 hours, according to a Tidal spokesperson.
Streaming music services frequently strike exclusive deals with major artists to promote their services, but these deals are generally time-limited. The same is true for “Anti”: The album will be available on other music services, including Apple Music and Spotify, in a week.
Tidal’s one million new trial users also come with a big caveat: Downloading “Anti”, and in turn signing up for Tidal, didn’t require users to enter a credit card number. This means that come March, Tidal won’t be able to automatically convert those users into paying customers.
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