The Recording Industry Association of America awarded Rihanna's new album a platinum certification today, meaning that a million copies reached the public. This is not particularly surprising, since the album was highly anticipated and a number of copies were given away for free download as a part of the singer's deal with Samsung. (Jay Z did a similar thing with Magna Carta Holy Grail.)
In addition, Billboard reports that the lead single from the album, "Work," was the most-played song on radio yesterday, with 23.4 million audience impressions. This beat out the number of debut impressions for two other recent singles from marquee artists, Adele's "Hello" and Justin Bieber's "Sorry."
Record giveaways do not factor into the Billboard 200 album chart. Back when U2 released Songs Of Innocence as a free download, Billboard noted, "free or giveaway albums are not eligible for inclusion on Billboard's album charts and do not count toward sales tracked by Nielsen SoundScan."
Rihanna thanked her fans on Twitter.
