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Following the release of her new single 鈥淲ork,鈥� singer Rihanna鈥檚 full album 鈥淎nti鈥� is now available 鈥� but if you鈥檙e hoping for a CD to set on your shelf, you鈥檙e out of luck, at least for now.听

Rihanna鈥檚 album is now available on Tidal, the streaming service in which Rihanna is involved along with such music stars as Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Madonna.听

For fans who don鈥檛 have an account with Tidal, Rihanna is making some copies of her album available for no charge.

, the album is 鈥渆xclusively available in streaming and downloadable formats.鈥� So it doesn鈥檛 sound like a physical album is on its way soon, though one may be released later.听

With digital copies of albums available for purchase through services like iTunes or for streaming through platforms like Spotify, how much does the actual album matter?

Avoiding the physical album has been tried for more than a decade. In 2004, Universal Music Group brought together various little-known acts to release their albums in the digital format only. At that time, saving money was cited as an important consideration. 鈥淚t's just so expensive these days to record an artist and make a video and put them out on the road to properly develop them," Jay Gilbert, a senior director at Universal's Music Enterprises unit and the person in charge of Universal鈥檚 digital-only label, . "This is an alternative to that that's not very expensive but can be highly effective.鈥�

But Rihanna, a chart-topping artist, presumably doesn鈥檛 have to worry about that. So what are the advantages to a move like this?

Hunter Hayes, a Grammy-nominated country singer, announced last year that he would be releasing multiple singles through streaming services and, later, iTunes but that he did not at that point have plans for any album that bring the songs together. (He later released the album 鈥淭he 21 Project,鈥� which included the tracks, at the end of 2015.)聽

鈥淲e're starting to see an effective strategy in building a digital story first with 18- to 24-year-olds,鈥� Jeremy Holley, the senior vice-president of consumer and interactive marketing at Hayes鈥檚 label Warner Music, . Country radio stations are 鈥渟till the No. 1 discovery format,鈥� Holley said, 鈥渂ut not the be-all, end-all.鈥�

This could be a strategy that works better with younger music fans, however, says Holley.

鈥淭he country audience in general 颅traditionally skews older," says Holley. "Not all of [Blake Shelton鈥檚] fans understand or know about platforms like Spotify 鈥� they're still buying CDs at Walmart. It would probably be more 颅challenging, but it's not something we're necessarily afraid of.鈥澛�

One of Hayes鈥檚 songs, 鈥�21,鈥� reached its highest position on the chart at number 24.听

But for some labels, they may see dropping the release of a physical album as taking away a possible source of revenue. After all, even if album sales are low, that鈥檚 still more revenue than they would have had if they hadn鈥檛 released an album. 鈥淟abels still aren鈥檛 willing to abandon the physical release altogether,鈥� wrote in 2015.听

Album sales declined in 2015 by 6 percent, , but last year, the music industry had Adele, who quickly set records for how many albums she sold.听

Another interesting piece of this, though, as noted by Charlton, is the continuing growth in sales of vinyl, a physical form of music that saw higher sales for the tenth year in a row in 2015, .听

Also, today's music landscape continues to show that there is no blueprint for an album release anymore. From Beyonce and Drake's surprise album releases to Adele's decision to keep her album off streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music, many famous artists are choosing different paths.听

It remains to be seen if Rihanna鈥檚 move away from releasing a physical copy of 鈥淎nti鈥� affects her chart performance.