An unofficial album of music by acclaimed chart-topper Rihanna has been pulled from iTunes after it began to climb the charts over the weekend.
Back in 2016, Rihanna released her most recent album, Anti. Coming four years after 2012’s Unapologetic, the record managed to hit the top ten in almost every chart it was eligible for.
Since then, there has been plenty of talk about a new record from the acclaimed artist. While Rihanna reportedly began work on it back in 2017, it was confirmed late last year that the as-yet-untitled release would be in our hands at some point in 2019.
Of course, with such a voracious fanbase, it makes sense that any piece of music released by Rihanna would receive major publicity and support. This, it seems, is how the artist managed to climb the iTunes charts over the weekend with a completely unofficial album.
As The Fader reports, an album titled Angel appeared on iTunes over the weekend, under the alias Fenty Fantasia. With Rihanna’s last name involved in the mix, fans soon flocked to the new release and discovered this music was indeed by their idol.
However, after debuting at 67 on the Worldwide iTunes Albums Chart, the record was removed rather abruptly with no official word from Apple or iTunes.
The new fanmade album of unreleased Rihanna songs/old leaks released under a random name has debuted at #67 on the Worldwide iTunes Albums Chart. pic.twitter.com/1mHecngU9U
— FentyStats (@FentyStats) March 2, 2019
.@Rihanna reacts to news of a fan-made album composed of her unreleased tracks being uploaded to Apple Music. pic.twitter.com/0QQL8sz4go
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) March 3, 2019
As some fans began to note though, this record was in fact a collection of unreleased tracks and demos by Rihanna, with some tunes dating back as far as 2009.
Rihanna also addressed this controversy, responding to a fan who stated “What’s this mess Rih? Get their ass to jail asap” by succinctly noting, “shits crazy”.
As Rolling Stone notes though, this isn’t the first time such an incident has occurred, with “new” albums by Beyoncé and SZA making their way onto streaming services earlier this year.
“This sort of thing happens all the time,” explained Larry Miller, director of the music business program at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Music, to Rolling Stone. “People just don’t hear about it because it just doesn’t happen all the time with the biggest artist in the world.”
“Due to the changes in music distribution and the technology of distribution and consumption, these kinds of leaks, whether secret or not, are far more more likely to happen than ever.”
Likewise, Run The Jewels’ El-P also hit out at services such as Spotify for allowing such behaviour to occur, noting that he feels as though artists are not protected by fraud in the modern age.
“No matter how many times I pay my lawyer to take them down, Spotify just doesn’t care enough to not let other people upload songs to my page or my albums that I own to theirs,” El-P explained. “That’s the type of personal touch they’ve brought to the industry. $250 every time.”
“So not only do we get payed a pittance on Spotify but we actually have to pay hundreds a month simply to regulate what gets sold in our name. I’m tired of being nice about it, the world is descending in to fascism, I’ll be damned if I care about ruffling feathers at Spotify.”
Check our Rihanna’s ‘Work’:
