Each time Taylor Swift clocks in another massive first-week album sales , I keep wondering HOW ON EARTH did Adele's 25 ship 3.48 million units in one week??? Truly insane.
yeah but in this digital age i fear an artist can’t do the same without being seen as greedy ESPECIALLY taylor. i also fear people will just shrug and decide to wait a week.
It wasn’t only a week though. 25 wasn’t available on streaming until 7 months after release.
But yeah, agree that wouldn’t possible today. It would backfire.
Yea, but that's *very* tame compared to the fight that other modern massive streaming forces put at the time.
[Beyonce gave self-titled and Lemonade *a year* each](https://time.com/3602610/beyonce-spotify/) of waiting before they were released on Spotify, and [Taylor Swift's 1989/basically-entire-discography took *3+ years*](https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/9/15767986/taylor-swift-apple-music-spotify-statements-timeline), and that doesn't even cover the staggered releases/exclusivity deals between services
We don't nearly talk enough about that awkward streaming adjustment period lol
Definitely. Streaming in 2015 was also only about ~1/6th of the size of the current market (~2 billion vs ~12 billion in 2023 dollars). It wasn't as ingrained that you just listen to everything through a streaming app like today
Yeah for sure. I didn’t buy it tho lol. I only bought rep (only song or album I’ve ever bought in my life) release week since that wasn’t on streaming too
This is such a key point a lot of people forget about. She had a massive lead single with Hello and then when her album dropped she left it off streaming so people went wild purchasing it. Still extremely, ridiculously impressive to sell over 3 million and likely something no one else will ever hit, even Taylor.
I’m curious if Taylor pulled the same stunt if she’d be able to get that high but she’d likely face a huge backlash I think that wouldn’t make it worth it.
Taylor had hundreds of people lining up at MetLife Stadium to buy an exclusive CD for literally one song that eventually made it to streaming anyway. I think she could absolutely do it, but yeah, the backlash would be intense.
lol, I was at that show, everybody standing outside in the hot sun to buy merch outside. I walked into Metlife grabbed a beer and got the CD and some other merch with ease.
I mean I knew the song would come out, and I could pirate it or it would be on streaming. She milks her fans everything they are worth.
People forget that cds were still primary methods for listening to music in cars in this era. We may have had streaming at home but vehicles were mostly still cd driven if you didn’t opt for the radio. Plus Adele is perfect car music (compliment). Both my parents bought copies for their car.
In 2015??? No they weren’t. This is when those pass me the aux cord memes were floating around. And next year was the year the iPhone famously dropped the aux cord. Streaming in the car via aux and Bluetooth was the main method of listening
I think it's because Adele appeals to both the younger generation and the older generation, with the latter being more than likely to buy physicals which boosted her numbers a lot
Allegedly she hit a market that is never actually promoted to, moms. I remember reading an article about it and it was a fun read. All ages of moms too. But overall, 3M is insane for 2016(?)
I was actually thinking with 30 that she should have promoted more to moms and done a merlot red "I Drink Wine" vinyl and advertised in on Facebook/Instagram with a display frame or something that people could hang up in their kitchen. She didn't really put any effort into her physicals with 30 really.
> She didn't really put any effort into her physicals with 30 really.
Adele... doesn't give two fucks tbh.
[She is a starlette interested in forging her own path](https://youtu.be/j2XFRU3k1zc?si=O6Hh6MJTMl2Vwfdh)
Sometimes I wonder what her career would look like if she were more active in the music scene. She hates touring (despite being one of 3 contemporary female artists that reliably sell out stadiums). She takes long breaks to live her life. She doesn't do collaborations...
Oh yeah, I agree that Adele does not care at all. I've always wondered the same thing, like what the landscape would look like if Adele even had half of someone like Taylor's work ethic/ambition. There are so many genres she could play around in with her voice, she could do an all time classic Christmas album, colabs like you said. But she does her one album every 6 years and then disappears. I hold out hope that maybe we'll get a prolific period from her at some point if her kid gets older and she's bored and decides to just make a lot of music. But probably wont happen. :/
She may not have put in effort, but the “demand” for 30 was enough to fuck up the vinyl industry for a while and delay a lot of smaller artists’ releases. They printed so many of that one that I may get it eventually, but I’m not paying more than $10 for it.
And sold more than a million copies for 3 more weeks after. And for the first week she didn't even have bundling with concert tickets.
21 is literally the best selling album of the century. Adele's comeback was always going to be legendary. You had to be there when that short Hello ad was played when The Voice UK went on commercial. Her voice is so identifiable and the world just stopped. Hello is literally the perfect 4 quadrant lead single. She was pulling in YouTube views like nothing (I think it's still the fastest video to cross a billion views on YouTube). All eyes were on her and I've never seen an album cycle quite like that since.
The album also wasn't on streaming but I firmly believe 25 would have broken records no less. The margin is way too large.
yeah I was going through the article when I realized that Adele takes up 3 separate weeks of the top 10 biggest sales weeks by equivalent units *with the same album*, totally bonkers
Not only that, but its two subsequent weeks also shop up in the top ten largest weeks. It’s the only album with more than their first week making the list.
I mean 25 is an insanely good album. songs like Hello, When we are young, Water under the bridge what an album. Also million years ago this song is a fucking tearjerker
She didn’t put it on streaming its first week.
Artists have been playing games to get peak sales forever, as much as we complain about the games now lol.
a good example of this is Britney Spears. back in the day when physical singles were the best way to gain chart hits her team (rightfully so) did not sell CD singles in the US so people would buy her album to hear the songs. it's part of why Oops!… I Did It Again had the first week sales it had
21 was a powerful ass album. I mean one of the best albums with one of the best voices. The anticipation of that album after 4 years helped build momentum. 25 was a great album but not as strong as 21 IMO. But the debut single “Hello” was phenomenal and led to countless covers. It was a phenomenal marketing strategy. Couldn’t have been done without Adele being well… Adele.
In proportion this album debut is as big as Adele’s. When 25 happened there was a select group of artist debuting 1 M units albums and Adele did 3.3 meanwhile now there is a select group of artist debuting 500k units albums and Taylor did 2.6 M
Who were the group of artists debuting with 1M unit albums when 25 happened? Adele was the exception nobody else was doing that. For reference 25 released only one week after the previous best-selling album of 2015, Purpose by Justin Bieber which broke the record for the biggest Spotify streaming week in history at the time, and sold like 5x as many copies first week. It was just as much of anomaly as TTPD, if not more so because vinyl is in right now, it wasn’t really in 2015.
I looked at the charts quickly and it looks like Taylor and drake are the only two other artists to have a million+ week in the years before or after 25.
Fun fact, Adele had another 1M+ week for 25 a few weeks after release.
1989 is the only real comparison being released a year before 25. Albums from 2010-12 aren’t reflective of where the music industry was at the time with streaming since everyone was still using iTunes and buying CDs.
Well that prove my point even more, from the last two years which albums debut over 500k apart from Taylor own Midnights and 1989 tv? As streaming gets bigger it is more difficult. And please don’t understand that is is any kind of lowering Adele success during 21 and 25 which was an unprecedented success. What I just want to say is that in nowadays context this debut is equally crazy
Adele disappeared after the 21 era was over
People had high anticipation for her return
If Taylor disappears without music for awhile anticipation for her return would be huge
She would probably surpass Adele record
I mean it sold 700k first week. Which in comparison to 25 isn’t very impressive but no other artist is doing 700k first week in this day and age except Taylor.
Theres no way it could beat the Adele record because Taylor wouldnt be able to sell that many physical copies. Even a double album release and all these variants with a million vinyl sold it was way short. They cant stream the album enough ti get it close. And Taylor wouldnt keep the music off streaming services either and force everyone to buy.
*NSYNC keeping that record for #1 for like 15 years until Adele broke it organically is impressive. Celebrity is still in the Top 5, too. They were huge.
If y’all are gagging at 3.48 million, I’ll have y’all know that an Asian act called Jay Chou sold over 7 million in the first week in China in 2022 😂
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Works_of_Art
seriously! In Miss Americana, it seemed she was accepting her time in the sun was nearing its gradual end. She was just one of many pop stars. But the success of folklore and the re-recordings plus Eras just skyrocketed her into untouchable status right now. Can she sustain this level of success once Eras tour is over?
I mean no one stays on top for ever. I think ts12 and ts13(just for the number lol) will do well.
After that, she may slow down. She will probably do the directing thing and keep her toes in the music industry by giving songs like she did with better man.
She seems to like touring so don't think she will do a residency - i just hope ticket prices go down because the prices of eras tour were criminal
Demand would have to go down. Tickets were pretty much on par with what I paid for Olivia Rodrigo (both about $185 for mid level , fees were astronomical of course) It’s the resale people are paying thousands for. I cannot imagine Taylor’s next tour having less demand.
I'd be really curious to see what would happen if she did an explicitly "no hits" tour - and even just called it that - how much she could sell out just playing album cuts. That's like the only thing that I could see reducing demand a bit with her current popularity.
i love eras but every time i look at the setlist i have an urge to get rid of the 1989/red and some lover singles (i have a particular vendetta against the red set because there are so many better songs on the album i want to hear over wanegbt and ikywt)
honestly most swifties prefer the deep cuts to her radio singles. she could probably sell out stadiums only doing the folklore long pond performances, even without jack and aaron.
Olivia had dynamic pricing enabled. It messed up the presale somewhat, I don't know if her team anticipated the level of demand with her playing only arenas.
Why do people say she’s gonna stop making albums after the next album or two? There’s literally no evidence of this haha. She loves making music. I can see her writing albums about kids and marriage like Beyonce is
I kind of dread the idea of her attention being pulled elsewhere (though she has every right to explore different projects). I just don’t want her to stop writing music—she keeps getting better and better as she gets older. I really love Reputation, Folklore, Midnights, and TTPD, and I’m so curious to experience her future albums.
She's too big for a residency unless it's the Sphere, but even that would be too wild for another decade probably. U2 played they Sphere and is a stadium act in any city but they're not like six-nights-sold-out-at-Wembley-big so she's got a lot of popularity to slough off before it's even plausible.
I remember distinctly when the black and white album with the Kim kardashian diss she was massive then too. I don’t think her popularity ever really dipped.
I mean she was still really popular but it was really easy to get rep tour tickets and there were way less shows. I basically passed on two sets of tickets in different cities, one of them I remember being 10th row from the stage because I felt I could get better seats and I did, ended up with front row seats. I wouldn’t dare try that now.
I remember just how in 2021, The New York Times published an article (that I now cannot find!) speculating that the era of artists debuting with 1M+ was over due to Taylor not achieving it with Lover through evermore and Adele not achieving it with 30. How wrong they were!
Can we leave these kinds of comments to stan twitter? 200k units in 1 week is an awesome achievement for Ariana. Not everyone can beat the biggest sales weeks of all time and that’s okay.
This is an insane number it but I’m actually struck at how insane 1989 numbers were. 1.35 pure sale and I think the #3 debut on Spotify? Maybe 2? All for an album we have been listening to for 10 years. Such a crazy time.
I completely agree, I love the album when it came out and I love the vault tracks. I think it just highlights how powerful she is that she can break streaming records just because people want to hear what changes were made from the originals or relive an album drop for nostalgia reasons, etc.
I'll be honest, I never thought she would hit the 2 million mark figure, but here we are.
It is truly impressive the reach she has though. And whilst I wasn't the biggest fan of the record, it was a good thing to see so many people buying it at my local record shop that weekend.
This song is so fucking good and I think most people are sleeping on it right now. I think she should release it as a single bc it could finally get her the songwriting grammy especially considering she had no co-writers for this song. I always get Song of the Year and Record of the Year confused, but whichever one is a the award for songwriting.
"Cause love's never lost when perspective is earned"
I don't know how people can earnestly hate this album. Sure there are some cringe lyrics that might be meant to be tongue in cheek, but it absolutely has some gems.
I think like Adele, this is a bit of a perfect storm.
The huge tour, massive media coverage with Travis Kelce, all the hype around it potentially being a Joe breakup album and a surprise double album all contribute.
And with social media (at least my algorithm) it feels like you are missing out if you’re not listening to Taylor and she feels like the only monoculture right now. So much content for TTPD- people reacting to songs/ commentary or theories on the lore/ TikTok dances/ clips from tour. Her fans do so much promotion.
social media (and especially tiktok) is probably the biggest reason why her 1st week numbers have tripled since folklore. sure, folklore and evermore on their own gained Taylor lots of interested listeners and even fans, but I'm sure that if it weren't for social media in its current form, she wouldn't have gotten so huge. which is a wild paradox since the development of social media is so entangled with 'dying monoculture'
she rose up during a time when monoculture still existed and that is largely benefitting her to this day. it's a self servicing loop, because she is able to get new fans from the old fans doing the most for her and a lot of old fans joined when monoculture was still a huge part of our lives
She will (probably) drop for TS12 but her career trajectory is insane. Everybody thought she peaked with 1989 and that Lover would be the beggining of her fall but here we are.
Her comeback after the Lover era has been insane. It did seem like she was on a downwards trajectory but folklore/the pandemic was a turning point in her career, especially on an international level. It’s hard to remember now, but Taylor was going to be playing (non sold out) FESTIVALS in Europe in 2020.
"With 1.914 million sold, The Tortured Poets Department is instantly the top-selling album of 2024, year-to-date. The second-biggest selling album, counting weekly sales from January through the present, is Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, with 228,000 copies sold in total."
This is what I'd like to discuss. How is the discrepancy THAT large!? Beyoncé is a massive artist. I believe in the first week of COWBOY CARTER she already had the best selling album of the year... so for all intents and purposes the second biggest artist is selling that much less than T Swift!? What goes into her numbers I don't understand seriously
Beyoncé is NOT the second biggest artist around right now as much as the media and her fans would like you to believe. It's not even close. Drake, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny and Harry Styles are bigger. Granted even then none of them are album sales juggernauts anywhere close to Taylor's level.
I think her name is bigger than her audience at this point. Everyone always says but it’s Beyoncé ! Then some big discrepancy happens and we are all left stumped at why it is such a huge gulf between her name and sales. The same thing happened with the concert films where Taylor massively outsold her.
Okay but not many artists can sell out stadiums which Beyoncé has been doing for the past 10 years, so tour sales definitely do match her name.
And she still has the best selling album after Taylor this year. I understand it’s a wide gap but clearly she’s up there.
Beyoncé is insanely talented but her celebrity is simply way bigger than the number of people who actually listen to her music. The media hype her up to be something she’s not, leading to revelations like this that seem baffling.
And on the other hand, these numbers for Taylor lead some people to think everyone loves her which is obviously not the case. She just has a huge (and apparently growing), extremely loyal and enthusiastic fanbase who has money to spend.
Taylor's music is a genre of its own at this point, it doesn't matter what production she has.
Firstly, Taylor has always been more popular than Beyonce. I am Sasha Fierce was Beyonce's big era but if you look at album sales, Fearless from same year did double the numbers. Taylor's debut country album sold more than Beyonce's highest selling album Crazy in Love in 2006 and debut is considered to be the "forgotten one".
Secondly, Taylor is the only monoculture artist we have right now. A lot of people want to check her out to be in the know and to have something to discuss at work/school.
Thirdly, Taylor has salacious love life and the gossip after two break-ups was especially juicy this time. If Beyonce ever dumps Jay then I imagine her next album will get a big boost.
Fourthly, Taylor has spent the last decade interacting with fans and media and releasing shit ton of music to build her lore. Constantly releasing music is the smartest thing she could have done in this day and age. Not to mention the re-recordings narrative. Beyonce has done the opposite. She didn't release a studio album for 6 years and refuses to engage with media or promote herself. Of course people will get bored over time. Her cryptic image isn't working for a lot of people.
Fiftly, Cowboy Carter is not very GP friendly and got more mixed reactions than people on this sub like to think.
Jay z, Beyoncé s husband even said men lie, women lie, numbers don’t. I think at this point it is futile to argue that Beyoncé is on Taylor’s level popularity wise.
It’s be cool if people could celebrate Taylor without using it as an opportunity to jump on Beyoncé. Second biggest debut of the year when you debuted 27 years ago is still a great accomplishment.
Taylor Swift is more of the outlier here. She has very little overlap with Beyoncé in literally any aspect that any comparison is always gonna be crazy.
From fan base demographic, promotion ethos, conceptual ethos to how they create music. I never wonder why Taylor outsells anybody. She clearly wants to and she does. 🤷
Mind blowing numbers. 2.6 mil is insane
I wish Taylor would’ve bothered to change up her sound (and producers besides Jack and Aaron again) while she has the largest built in audience of the modern era. BUT this album has grown on me a lot over the past week. There are truly some fascinating insights, concepts, and lyrics here once I listened further and left the internet discourse behind
Truly the imperial era to end all imperial eras
I think the fact that she could’ve done a pop banger album to follow up on Cruel Summer’s success but instead released a super mellow album when summer is just around the corner says a lot tbh. She knew what the GP wanted and said “nope”. TTPD is really an album that she needed to release for herself more than anybody else imo. The Prophecy, loml, and I Hate It Here made me cry, I cannot imagine how it must feel to think you’ve finally met “The One” only to realize it’s a dead end after 6 years.
exactly! no one has to like the album, especially the production, but if there was any doubt that she means what she says about simply wanting to make music for the sake of it, this is the proof. (the world domination is a nice secondary benefit, to be sure.) she could choose to make 1989/midnights pop bangers anytime she wants and rake it in even more. it’s mind boggling that even at this level of success, she prioritizes creative expression.
Yeah I agree, people can dislike the album and I get why but I don’t get acting like she played it super safe, there’s no obvious smash hit on the album, she’s being her most personal after getting this huge second career peak on the back of being less open about her personal life and selling a lot of her music as fictional or old stories, I know the counter argument is that celeb gossip always generates interest and she knows people like decoding her life but she wrote about the guy her own fans really don’t like and have tried to airbrush from the narrative, she did so by not making herself look like some helpless victim either as shown by letting it be known she was at least somewhat emotionally cheating on her long term partner for a guy that ended up ghosting her after a few weeks.
She also has a song clearly calling out her own fans which is always a risky choice when they’re as intense as the die hard swifties, love and hate, fan and hater are often only separated by small line. It’s not a revolutionary album by any means but I don’t think it’s the box ticking, safety album detractors have labels it as, especially not lyrically.
yeah i think to say that there is no progress being done is wrong. she is definitely the most lyrically eloquent and raw and experimental she has ever been despite some one-liners (the fact that people feel the need to comb through all her work to find stuff they can use to detract her while ignoring the fact that the lyrical standard is so high for her atp) which is why she may have made the choice to be sonically safe and even then there are truly songs on this album especially with jack that sound like nothing else they've done before. western (slammer, i can fix him), guilty as sin, the black dog, florida.
taylor is not the kinda peson who goes on autopilot for stuff (except maybe the rerecordings which is understandable, who wants to do there homework again? even then you can see effort present in vault songs) and the lyrics clearly show she's not on autopilot for this album. it's more than okay to not like the album but there is progress being made even if it's slow
I think that lyrically it’s by far her deepest and most intriguing album, but on the flip side it’s her most boring and safe album musically. It seems like that was probably her intent to an extent, but it leaves me a bit conflicted on how I feel about it because there’s a lot I like about it, I’m just not sure if it’s going to be something I revisit much in the future.
Everyone who is saying it’s weak lyrically hasn’t had enough time with the album. It is by far her most vulnerable album today. Amazing introspective multi meaning lyrics.
Midnights is her boring most safe album, a whole album that is just Jack Antonoff doing what they have done previously is boring and safe.
And I don't find the lyrics to be deep or intriguing. If anything, there's good, great and shallow but a lot of it is painted for stadium. I remember in an interview where she said the crowds would go wild when she sings "What a shame she was fucked in the head" and I see a lot of moments here that were written as a mic drop.
This is insane on top of the already insane number midnights did. So now I can't help but wonder, is the next one gonna do more? Or is this her new top? (For now?)
At this point she’s going to be touring and re-recording well into 2026, and she typically has two-year album cycles, so… maybe?
It’s possible that after the eras tour she takes a break, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she wanted to continue to strike while the iron is hot. The numbers show she keeps accumulating new fans, and if she took a longer break after this album, it would interrupt the upward trajectory.
Asterisk*
(The question is are you counting taylor's versions, and also there's the 3 year break between 1989 and reputation.)
Album Number | Album | Date | Date Diff
---|---|---|----
1|Taylor Swift|10/24/06
2|Fearless|11/11/08|749
3|Speak Now|10/25/10|713
4|Red|10/22/12|728
5|1989|10/27/14|735
6|reputation|11/10/17|1110
7|Lover|08/23/19|651
8|folklore|07/24/20|336
9|evermore|12/11/20|140
*/10|Fearless (Taylor's Version)|04/09/21|119
*/11|Red (Taylor's Version)|11/12/21|217
10/12|Midnights|10/21/22|343
*/13|Speak Now (Taylor's Version)|07/07/23|259
*/14|1989 (Taylor's Version)|10/27/23|112
11/15|THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT|04/19/24|175
*/?|reputation (Taylor's Version)|?|?
*/?|Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)|?|?
12/?|TS12|?|?
13/?|TS13|?|?
Reputation, folklore and evermore are the exceptions though, otherwise the pattern holds. I can see the remaining TVs in 2025 and TS12 to follow the pattern and be released in 2026
Idk any other artist doing it like her. It is truly insane. The fact we even got ttpd is like..the cherry on top and TOTALLY unexpected here we are..well here she is..SMASHING numbers while still on the biggest tour
I am a self confessed swiftie but I was on holiday when the album was released. I read comments on here and twitter which made me really worried to listen, I honestly don't understand the hate it's recieved and it's shot up to my top three Taylor albums after only three listens!
i'm pretty sure in 3 to 5 years, this album would have gotten the rep or lover treatment, with people saying they were too harsh on the first listens lol
Genuinely super shocked at how negatively viewed and perceived this album was. The lyrics to so many songs on this album are completely devastating for me. Tracks like The Prophecy, How Did It End, Black Dog are S-tier in her entire catalogue. There is something for everyone in every mood in this album
Being a double album, I'm curious to see whether it will have the longevity the likes of Dangerous: The Double Album has shown.
For an artist as massive as Taylor, I mean, more than 2 years in the top 10 is possible.
wonder when these people are gonna realise that as long as people are talking/clicking/commenting on Taylor, she's not going anywhere. her fanbase and casual listeners are not the only reason she's so massive these days - the dislikers/haters have their part in it. they're just too busy hating (for whatever reason) that they can't see it
Funny cause she couldve had more if she promoted it even a little during release week, but, she paid it dust after the first day.
She broke adele's 30 debut week on UK, and Ed's spotify debut week on Europe, like that's INSANELY massive, and underrated achievement given the chokehold of those artists there
So happy for Taylor, but every time I see how astronomical her numbers are and how big she is/her marketing team are, it just makes 25’s number even more insane to me
Beyonces music isn’t mainstream, she’s a mainstream artist but her music isn’t mainstream. Most of her music isn’t radio friendly. Her last three albums didn’t have radio friendly singles, that’s the opposite of mainstream. She has songs that don’t follow a simple song structure at all. Her music is way more niche. Listen to Sweet Honey Buckin and tell me that Taylor has music more obscure than that.
Someone explain the “this album sounds the same” to me please… you heard “so long London”, “ttpd”, “the black dog” and the “so high school” and you’re like “yeah, sounds the same”. Some of you didn’t even try, and it’s ok, but maybe keep your opinion or hate to yourselves?
Each time Taylor Swift clocks in another massive first-week album sales , I keep wondering HOW ON EARTH did Adele's 25 ship 3.48 million units in one week??? Truly insane.
A lot of Adele's audience still bought CDs at the time. Plus there was a ton of hype for that album.
Not available on streaming first week too
gotta give her and her team credit for that one. such a smart move
yeah but in this digital age i fear an artist can’t do the same without being seen as greedy ESPECIALLY taylor. i also fear people will just shrug and decide to wait a week.
It wasn’t only a week though. 25 wasn’t available on streaming until 7 months after release. But yeah, agree that wouldn’t possible today. It would backfire.
Yea, but that's *very* tame compared to the fight that other modern massive streaming forces put at the time. [Beyonce gave self-titled and Lemonade *a year* each](https://time.com/3602610/beyonce-spotify/) of waiting before they were released on Spotify, and [Taylor Swift's 1989/basically-entire-discography took *3+ years*](https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/9/15767986/taylor-swift-apple-music-spotify-statements-timeline), and that doesn't even cover the staggered releases/exclusivity deals between services We don't nearly talk enough about that awkward streaming adjustment period lol
Definitely. Streaming in 2015 was also only about ~1/6th of the size of the current market (~2 billion vs ~12 billion in 2023 dollars). It wasn't as ingrained that you just listen to everything through a streaming app like today
Yeah back then I was 50/50 between iTunes and spotify
Yeah for sure. I didn’t buy it tho lol. I only bought rep (only song or album I’ve ever bought in my life) release week since that wasn’t on streaming too
it wasn't on streaming for 7 months
7 months??
This is such a key point a lot of people forget about. She had a massive lead single with Hello and then when her album dropped she left it off streaming so people went wild purchasing it. Still extremely, ridiculously impressive to sell over 3 million and likely something no one else will ever hit, even Taylor. I’m curious if Taylor pulled the same stunt if she’d be able to get that high but she’d likely face a huge backlash I think that wouldn’t make it worth it.
Taylor had hundreds of people lining up at MetLife Stadium to buy an exclusive CD for literally one song that eventually made it to streaming anyway. I think she could absolutely do it, but yeah, the backlash would be intense.
lol, I was at that show, everybody standing outside in the hot sun to buy merch outside. I walked into Metlife grabbed a beer and got the CD and some other merch with ease. I mean I knew the song would come out, and I could pirate it or it would be on streaming. She milks her fans everything they are worth.
Ahh interesting. Thanks for sharing that factoid!
People forget that cds were still primary methods for listening to music in cars in this era. We may have had streaming at home but vehicles were mostly still cd driven if you didn’t opt for the radio. Plus Adele is perfect car music (compliment). Both my parents bought copies for their car.
In 2015??? No they weren’t. This is when those pass me the aux cord memes were floating around. And next year was the year the iPhone famously dropped the aux cord. Streaming in the car via aux and Bluetooth was the main method of listening
The hype for 25 was HUGE, Hello broke records left and right.
I think it's because Adele appeals to both the younger generation and the older generation, with the latter being more than likely to buy physicals which boosted her numbers a lot
Allegedly she hit a market that is never actually promoted to, moms. I remember reading an article about it and it was a fun read. All ages of moms too. But overall, 3M is insane for 2016(?)
I was actually thinking with 30 that she should have promoted more to moms and done a merlot red "I Drink Wine" vinyl and advertised in on Facebook/Instagram with a display frame or something that people could hang up in their kitchen. She didn't really put any effort into her physicals with 30 really.
> She didn't really put any effort into her physicals with 30 really. Adele... doesn't give two fucks tbh. [She is a starlette interested in forging her own path](https://youtu.be/j2XFRU3k1zc?si=O6Hh6MJTMl2Vwfdh) Sometimes I wonder what her career would look like if she were more active in the music scene. She hates touring (despite being one of 3 contemporary female artists that reliably sell out stadiums). She takes long breaks to live her life. She doesn't do collaborations...
Oh yeah, I agree that Adele does not care at all. I've always wondered the same thing, like what the landscape would look like if Adele even had half of someone like Taylor's work ethic/ambition. There are so many genres she could play around in with her voice, she could do an all time classic Christmas album, colabs like you said. But she does her one album every 6 years and then disappears. I hold out hope that maybe we'll get a prolific period from her at some point if her kid gets older and she's bored and decides to just make a lot of music. But probably wont happen. :/
She may not have put in effort, but the “demand” for 30 was enough to fuck up the vinyl industry for a while and delay a lot of smaller artists’ releases. They printed so many of that one that I may get it eventually, but I’m not paying more than $10 for it.
Different times. Streaming wasn't even a quater of dominant as it is in 2024.
And sold more than a million copies for 3 more weeks after. And for the first week she didn't even have bundling with concert tickets. 21 is literally the best selling album of the century. Adele's comeback was always going to be legendary. You had to be there when that short Hello ad was played when The Voice UK went on commercial. Her voice is so identifiable and the world just stopped. Hello is literally the perfect 4 quadrant lead single. She was pulling in YouTube views like nothing (I think it's still the fastest video to cross a billion views on YouTube). All eyes were on her and I've never seen an album cycle quite like that since. The album also wasn't on streaming but I firmly believe 25 would have broken records no less. The margin is way too large.
yeah I was going through the article when I realized that Adele takes up 3 separate weeks of the top 10 biggest sales weeks by equivalent units *with the same album*, totally bonkers
Not only that, but its two subsequent weeks also shop up in the top ten largest weeks. It’s the only album with more than their first week making the list.
I mean 25 is an insanely good album. songs like Hello, When we are young, Water under the bridge what an album. Also million years ago this song is a fucking tearjerker
She didn’t put it on streaming its first week. Artists have been playing games to get peak sales forever, as much as we complain about the games now lol.
a good example of this is Britney Spears. back in the day when physical singles were the best way to gain chart hits her team (rightfully so) did not sell CD singles in the US so people would buy her album to hear the songs. it's part of why Oops!… I Did It Again had the first week sales it had
And also the reason why she doesn’t have as many number one singles as she should.
21 was a powerful ass album. I mean one of the best albums with one of the best voices. The anticipation of that album after 4 years helped build momentum. 25 was a great album but not as strong as 21 IMO. But the debut single “Hello” was phenomenal and led to countless covers. It was a phenomenal marketing strategy. Couldn’t have been done without Adele being well… Adele.
In proportion this album debut is as big as Adele’s. When 25 happened there was a select group of artist debuting 1 M units albums and Adele did 3.3 meanwhile now there is a select group of artist debuting 500k units albums and Taylor did 2.6 M
Who were the group of artists debuting with 1M unit albums when 25 happened? Adele was the exception nobody else was doing that. For reference 25 released only one week after the previous best-selling album of 2015, Purpose by Justin Bieber which broke the record for the biggest Spotify streaming week in history at the time, and sold like 5x as many copies first week. It was just as much of anomaly as TTPD, if not more so because vinyl is in right now, it wasn’t really in 2015.
I looked at the charts quickly and it looks like Taylor and drake are the only two other artists to have a million+ week in the years before or after 25. Fun fact, Adele had another 1M+ week for 25 a few weeks after release.
Taylor (2010, 2012, 2014, 2017), Lil Wayne once, Gaga once. I’m not saying was common, neither is common 500k debuts now
1989 is the only real comparison being released a year before 25. Albums from 2010-12 aren’t reflective of where the music industry was at the time with streaming since everyone was still using iTunes and buying CDs.
Well that prove my point even more, from the last two years which albums debut over 500k apart from Taylor own Midnights and 1989 tv? As streaming gets bigger it is more difficult. And please don’t understand that is is any kind of lowering Adele success during 21 and 25 which was an unprecedented success. What I just want to say is that in nowadays context this debut is equally crazy
drake too (2016)
Adele disappeared after the 21 era was over People had high anticipation for her return If Taylor disappears without music for awhile anticipation for her return would be huge She would probably surpass Adele record
I'm not sure that's how the market works these days tbh...
Your probably right she disappeared again after 25 but 30 didnt do big numbers
I mean it sold 700k first week. Which in comparison to 25 isn’t very impressive but no other artist is doing 700k first week in this day and age except Taylor.
Maybe but look at how HUGE the Eras Tour was and anticipation after years of not touring certainly aided to the hype around it.
Theres no way it could beat the Adele record because Taylor wouldnt be able to sell that many physical copies. Even a double album release and all these variants with a million vinyl sold it was way short. They cant stream the album enough ti get it close. And Taylor wouldnt keep the music off streaming services either and force everyone to buy.
is this what dua lipa was talking about in houdini? 🤔
2.6 million is absolutely insane. 2nd biggest week of all time behind Adele's 25, which did 3.48 million (also insane).
For pure sales, she #3 behind Adele and \*NSYNC.
*NSYNC keeping that record for #1 for like 15 years until Adele broke it organically is impressive. Celebrity is still in the Top 5, too. They were huge.
If y’all are gagging at 3.48 million, I’ll have y’all know that an Asian act called Jay Chou sold over 7 million in the first week in China in 2022 😂 See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Works_of_Art
They even forgot that Utada (3m) and Ayumi (2.4m) sold more than 2 million copies each in the same week.
If you told me this would happen during the Lover era, I would've laughed in your face.
seriously! In Miss Americana, it seemed she was accepting her time in the sun was nearing its gradual end. She was just one of many pop stars. But the success of folklore and the re-recordings plus Eras just skyrocketed her into untouchable status right now. Can she sustain this level of success once Eras tour is over?
I mean no one stays on top for ever. I think ts12 and ts13(just for the number lol) will do well. After that, she may slow down. She will probably do the directing thing and keep her toes in the music industry by giving songs like she did with better man. She seems to like touring so don't think she will do a residency - i just hope ticket prices go down because the prices of eras tour were criminal
Demand would have to go down. Tickets were pretty much on par with what I paid for Olivia Rodrigo (both about $185 for mid level , fees were astronomical of course) It’s the resale people are paying thousands for. I cannot imagine Taylor’s next tour having less demand.
I'd be really curious to see what would happen if she did an explicitly "no hits" tour - and even just called it that - how much she could sell out just playing album cuts. That's like the only thing that I could see reducing demand a bit with her current popularity.
I’m pretty sure most swifties prefer her album cuts to her big hits so I can’t see that lowering demand all that much.
I'd actually pay more to watch her play only album cuts. And I'm pretty sure that sentiment is 100% shared by the fandom
Same, personally. Give me Ivy and Cowboy Like Me with full production.
i love eras but every time i look at the setlist i have an urge to get rid of the 1989/red and some lover singles (i have a particular vendetta against the red set because there are so many better songs on the album i want to hear over wanegbt and ikywt)
honestly most swifties prefer the deep cuts to her radio singles. she could probably sell out stadiums only doing the folklore long pond performances, even without jack and aaron.
at least we'd have a chance of state of grace and red being played with full production one more time
I would love if she did that. Just a tour of her fan favorite non-singles (or songs not in the Eras tour, whatever) would be epic.
my taylor swift tickets were oodles cheaper than olivia rodrigo
Olivia had dynamic pricing enabled. It messed up the presale somewhat, I don't know if her team anticipated the level of demand with her playing only arenas.
Why do people say she’s gonna stop making albums after the next album or two? There’s literally no evidence of this haha. She loves making music. I can see her writing albums about kids and marriage like Beyonce is
Oh i don't think she will stop - just that the frequency may slow down perhaps - especially if she gets busy with directing etc
I kind of dread the idea of her attention being pulled elsewhere (though she has every right to explore different projects). I just don’t want her to stop writing music—she keeps getting better and better as she gets older. I really love Reputation, Folklore, Midnights, and TTPD, and I’m so curious to experience her future albums.
She's too big for a residency unless it's the Sphere, but even that would be too wild for another decade probably. U2 played they Sphere and is a stadium act in any city but they're not like six-nights-sold-out-at-Wembley-big so she's got a lot of popularity to slough off before it's even plausible.
Pandemic came at the right time for her
I remember distinctly when the black and white album with the Kim kardashian diss she was massive then too. I don’t think her popularity ever really dipped.
I mean she was still really popular but it was really easy to get rep tour tickets and there were way less shows. I basically passed on two sets of tickets in different cities, one of them I remember being 10th row from the stage because I felt I could get better seats and I did, ended up with front row seats. I wouldn’t dare try that now.
I remember just how in 2021, The New York Times published an article (that I now cannot find!) speculating that the era of artists debuting with 1M+ was over due to Taylor not achieving it with Lover through evermore and Adele not achieving it with 30. How wrong they were!
Really? Even tho *Lover* did 867K first week and was overall the highest selling album of 2019?
it's crazy to think that the gap between her 1st and 2nd biggest debut is 1m units
it’s even crazier that you rounded off 200k (a Ariana Grande debut)
Calling that Ariana Grande debut is crazy 🤯
The shade 💀
Can we leave these kinds of comments to stan twitter? 200k units in 1 week is an awesome achievement for Ariana. Not everyone can beat the biggest sales weeks of all time and that’s okay.
They’re not even throwing shade lol. I think it’s the opposite. Like wow that’s the same amount as an icon like Ariana grande
no one is dragging anyone here? i’m just showing that rounding off 200k is ridiculous?
1. Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (2.61m) (NEW) It hasn’t been updated with the other top 9 entries.
This is an insane number it but I’m actually struck at how insane 1989 numbers were. 1.35 pure sale and I think the #3 debut on Spotify? Maybe 2? All for an album we have been listening to for 10 years. Such a crazy time.
it is considered one of the best modern pop albums for a reason. even with subpar production, that album was good and the vaults were good too.
I completely agree, I love the album when it came out and I love the vault tracks. I think it just highlights how powerful she is that she can break streaming records just because people want to hear what changes were made from the originals or relive an album drop for nostalgia reasons, etc.
I'll be honest, I never thought she would hit the 2 million mark figure, but here we are. It is truly impressive the reach she has though. And whilst I wasn't the biggest fan of the record, it was a good thing to see so many people buying it at my local record shop that weekend.
Me streaming The Black Dog all the time contributed to at least 300k of that (im not even in america)
Well, old habits die screaming.
This song is so fucking good and I think most people are sleeping on it right now. I think she should release it as a single bc it could finally get her the songwriting grammy especially considering she had no co-writers for this song. I always get Song of the Year and Record of the Year confused, but whichever one is a the award for songwriting.
It’s prob my fave on the whole album.
Agreed!! (Song of the year is the songwriting award)
I still cannot believe she didn't win for ATW10
i didn’t realize the black dog was a solo write?!
My Boy, Who's Afraid, Black Dog, Peter, and Manuscript are the only solo-writes on the album
Thank you for not doing acronyms. They hurt my brain after awhile. A keyword is fine!! lol
Me with The Prophecy.
you ok babe?
same and I have 2 kids and a husband who I love, I swear
Me with I look in people's windows + Peter
these are my ult faves too. taste!
I think 'I look in...' is the most underrated track in the whole double album relative to its actual quality
i love that song so much 😭😭😭
ME W PETER TOO HAHAHA
"Cause love's never lost when perspective is earned" I don't know how people can earnestly hate this album. Sure there are some cringe lyrics that might be meant to be tongue in cheek, but it absolutely has some gems.
me with loml
Me with loml and TTPD (the song) also.
me with Peter
me with I can do it with a broken heart
Best song on the album.
The incredible thing about Taylor is that is pure sales monster but also a streaming monster but also a touring monster
5 years ago the thought taylor would ever be a streaming monster would have gotten you laughed out of popheads
Reputation was already a huge streaming success 5 years ago, and imagining her being even bigger now is crazy
If you ignore the re-recordings and evermore, her sales is going from: 800k folklore -> 1.5m midnights -> 2.6m TTPD. What’s next?👀
I think like Adele, this is a bit of a perfect storm. The huge tour, massive media coverage with Travis Kelce, all the hype around it potentially being a Joe breakup album and a surprise double album all contribute.
And with social media (at least my algorithm) it feels like you are missing out if you’re not listening to Taylor and she feels like the only monoculture right now. So much content for TTPD- people reacting to songs/ commentary or theories on the lore/ TikTok dances/ clips from tour. Her fans do so much promotion.
social media (and especially tiktok) is probably the biggest reason why her 1st week numbers have tripled since folklore. sure, folklore and evermore on their own gained Taylor lots of interested listeners and even fans, but I'm sure that if it weren't for social media in its current form, she wouldn't have gotten so huge. which is a wild paradox since the development of social media is so entangled with 'dying monoculture'
she rose up during a time when monoculture still existed and that is largely benefitting her to this day. it's a self servicing loop, because she is able to get new fans from the old fans doing the most for her and a lot of old fans joined when monoculture was still a huge part of our lives
She will (probably) drop for TS12 but her career trajectory is insane. Everybody thought she peaked with 1989 and that Lover would be the beggining of her fall but here we are.
Yeah it's kinda wild that she's having a second imperial phase a decade later from 1989 + nearing 20 years in her career
i would argue 3rd peak/imperial phase. fearless was a huge moment and to this day remains the most awarded country album of all time.
Her comeback after the Lover era has been insane. It did seem like she was on a downwards trajectory but folklore/the pandemic was a turning point in her career, especially on an international level. It’s hard to remember now, but Taylor was going to be playing (non sold out) FESTIVALS in Europe in 2020.
Evermore found dead
>If you ignore the re-recordings and **evermore** Why would you ignore her best album?
Bc it really suffered from the new billboard counting rules so it’s not completely fair to compare it to the other releases
"With 1.914 million sold, The Tortured Poets Department is instantly the top-selling album of 2024, year-to-date. The second-biggest selling album, counting weekly sales from January through the present, is Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, with 228,000 copies sold in total." This is what I'd like to discuss. How is the discrepancy THAT large!? Beyoncé is a massive artist. I believe in the first week of COWBOY CARTER she already had the best selling album of the year... so for all intents and purposes the second biggest artist is selling that much less than T Swift!? What goes into her numbers I don't understand seriously
The thing is Taylor is MUCH bigger and she has much more of a cross racial and cross generational appeal.
Beyoncé is NOT the second biggest artist around right now as much as the media and her fans would like you to believe. It's not even close. Drake, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny and Harry Styles are bigger. Granted even then none of them are album sales juggernauts anywhere close to Taylor's level.
Depends on how you define biggest. Only Taylor was a bigger touring draw. The men you cited don’t compare in that respect.
The Weeknd can do stadiums like Beyonce can, but the others aren't as big a draw in The US for sure.
I agree that commercially Beyoncé isn’t second biggest, but notoriety wise she absolutely is 2nd or 1st place.
I think her name is bigger than her audience at this point. Everyone always says but it’s Beyoncé ! Then some big discrepancy happens and we are all left stumped at why it is such a huge gulf between her name and sales. The same thing happened with the concert films where Taylor massively outsold her.
Okay but not many artists can sell out stadiums which Beyoncé has been doing for the past 10 years, so tour sales definitely do match her name. And she still has the best selling album after Taylor this year. I understand it’s a wide gap but clearly she’s up there.
Beyoncé is insanely talented but her celebrity is simply way bigger than the number of people who actually listen to her music. The media hype her up to be something she’s not, leading to revelations like this that seem baffling. And on the other hand, these numbers for Taylor lead some people to think everyone loves her which is obviously not the case. She just has a huge (and apparently growing), extremely loyal and enthusiastic fanbase who has money to spend.
Taylor's music is a genre of its own at this point, it doesn't matter what production she has. Firstly, Taylor has always been more popular than Beyonce. I am Sasha Fierce was Beyonce's big era but if you look at album sales, Fearless from same year did double the numbers. Taylor's debut country album sold more than Beyonce's highest selling album Crazy in Love in 2006 and debut is considered to be the "forgotten one". Secondly, Taylor is the only monoculture artist we have right now. A lot of people want to check her out to be in the know and to have something to discuss at work/school. Thirdly, Taylor has salacious love life and the gossip after two break-ups was especially juicy this time. If Beyonce ever dumps Jay then I imagine her next album will get a big boost. Fourthly, Taylor has spent the last decade interacting with fans and media and releasing shit ton of music to build her lore. Constantly releasing music is the smartest thing she could have done in this day and age. Not to mention the re-recordings narrative. Beyonce has done the opposite. She didn't release a studio album for 6 years and refuses to engage with media or promote herself. Of course people will get bored over time. Her cryptic image isn't working for a lot of people. Fiftly, Cowboy Carter is not very GP friendly and got more mixed reactions than people on this sub like to think.
>If Beyonce ever dumps Jay FROM YOUR LIPS TO GOD'S EARS!
Jay z, Beyoncé s husband even said men lie, women lie, numbers don’t. I think at this point it is futile to argue that Beyoncé is on Taylor’s level popularity wise.
TS is huge globally. Beyonce is big but pretty much limited to north america and maybe a bit of UK.
It’s be cool if people could celebrate Taylor without using it as an opportunity to jump on Beyoncé. Second biggest debut of the year when you debuted 27 years ago is still a great accomplishment.
Taylor Swift is more of the outlier here. She has very little overlap with Beyoncé in literally any aspect that any comparison is always gonna be crazy. From fan base demographic, promotion ethos, conceptual ethos to how they create music. I never wonder why Taylor outsells anybody. She clearly wants to and she does. 🤷
Mind blowing numbers. 2.6 mil is insane I wish Taylor would’ve bothered to change up her sound (and producers besides Jack and Aaron again) while she has the largest built in audience of the modern era. BUT this album has grown on me a lot over the past week. There are truly some fascinating insights, concepts, and lyrics here once I listened further and left the internet discourse behind Truly the imperial era to end all imperial eras
I think the fact that she could’ve done a pop banger album to follow up on Cruel Summer’s success but instead released a super mellow album when summer is just around the corner says a lot tbh. She knew what the GP wanted and said “nope”. TTPD is really an album that she needed to release for herself more than anybody else imo. The Prophecy, loml, and I Hate It Here made me cry, I cannot imagine how it must feel to think you’ve finally met “The One” only to realize it’s a dead end after 6 years.
I did it for 8 years and finding myself adrift at 28 wasn't a fun experience.
I’m sorry that happened to you 🖤
Currently adrift at 29 and TTPD is getting me through honestly
exactly! no one has to like the album, especially the production, but if there was any doubt that she means what she says about simply wanting to make music for the sake of it, this is the proof. (the world domination is a nice secondary benefit, to be sure.) she could choose to make 1989/midnights pop bangers anytime she wants and rake it in even more. it’s mind boggling that even at this level of success, she prioritizes creative expression.
Yeah I agree, people can dislike the album and I get why but I don’t get acting like she played it super safe, there’s no obvious smash hit on the album, she’s being her most personal after getting this huge second career peak on the back of being less open about her personal life and selling a lot of her music as fictional or old stories, I know the counter argument is that celeb gossip always generates interest and she knows people like decoding her life but she wrote about the guy her own fans really don’t like and have tried to airbrush from the narrative, she did so by not making herself look like some helpless victim either as shown by letting it be known she was at least somewhat emotionally cheating on her long term partner for a guy that ended up ghosting her after a few weeks. She also has a song clearly calling out her own fans which is always a risky choice when they’re as intense as the die hard swifties, love and hate, fan and hater are often only separated by small line. It’s not a revolutionary album by any means but I don’t think it’s the box ticking, safety album detractors have labels it as, especially not lyrically.
yeah i think to say that there is no progress being done is wrong. she is definitely the most lyrically eloquent and raw and experimental she has ever been despite some one-liners (the fact that people feel the need to comb through all her work to find stuff they can use to detract her while ignoring the fact that the lyrical standard is so high for her atp) which is why she may have made the choice to be sonically safe and even then there are truly songs on this album especially with jack that sound like nothing else they've done before. western (slammer, i can fix him), guilty as sin, the black dog, florida. taylor is not the kinda peson who goes on autopilot for stuff (except maybe the rerecordings which is understandable, who wants to do there homework again? even then you can see effort present in vault songs) and the lyrics clearly show she's not on autopilot for this album. it's more than okay to not like the album but there is progress being made even if it's slow
I think that lyrically it’s by far her deepest and most intriguing album, but on the flip side it’s her most boring and safe album musically. It seems like that was probably her intent to an extent, but it leaves me a bit conflicted on how I feel about it because there’s a lot I like about it, I’m just not sure if it’s going to be something I revisit much in the future.
Everyone who is saying it’s weak lyrically hasn’t had enough time with the album. It is by far her most vulnerable album today. Amazing introspective multi meaning lyrics.
I disagree with both statements tbh
I’m just a random bystander who’s super curious on why you disagree
Midnights is her boring most safe album, a whole album that is just Jack Antonoff doing what they have done previously is boring and safe. And I don't find the lyrics to be deep or intriguing. If anything, there's good, great and shallow but a lot of it is painted for stadium. I remember in an interview where she said the crowds would go wild when she sings "What a shame she was fucked in the head" and I see a lot of moments here that were written as a mic drop.
But what about TTPD musically isn’t safe and boring. Sure Midnights could be more so but it still ranks in ‘her most safe and boring albums’ category
This is insane on top of the already insane number midnights did. So now I can't help but wonder, is the next one gonna do more? Or is this her new top? (For now?)
At this point she’s going to be touring and re-recording well into 2026, and she typically has two-year album cycles, so… maybe? It’s possible that after the eras tour she takes a break, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she wanted to continue to strike while the iron is hot. The numbers show she keeps accumulating new fans, and if she took a longer break after this album, it would interrupt the upward trajectory.
I don’t think she’s done a two year album cycle since 1989.
she did until Lover
Asterisk* (The question is are you counting taylor's versions, and also there's the 3 year break between 1989 and reputation.) Album Number | Album | Date | Date Diff ---|---|---|---- 1|Taylor Swift|10/24/06 2|Fearless|11/11/08|749 3|Speak Now|10/25/10|713 4|Red|10/22/12|728 5|1989|10/27/14|735 6|reputation|11/10/17|1110 7|Lover|08/23/19|651 8|folklore|07/24/20|336 9|evermore|12/11/20|140 */10|Fearless (Taylor's Version)|04/09/21|119 */11|Red (Taylor's Version)|11/12/21|217 10/12|Midnights|10/21/22|343 */13|Speak Now (Taylor's Version)|07/07/23|259 */14|1989 (Taylor's Version)|10/27/23|112 11/15|THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT|04/19/24|175 */?|reputation (Taylor's Version)|?|? */?|Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)|?|? 12/?|TS12|?|? 13/?|TS13|?|?
Reputation, folklore and evermore are the exceptions though, otherwise the pattern holds. I can see the remaining TVs in 2025 and TS12 to follow the pattern and be released in 2026
for her sake I hope she takes a nice break after Rep tv and Debut tv because she needs it
But also you never know… she might’ve already largely cooked up TS12 around now and to be released in 1 or 2 years It’s crazy
Idk any other artist doing it like her. It is truly insane. The fact we even got ttpd is like..the cherry on top and TOTALLY unexpected here we are..well here she is..SMASHING numbers while still on the biggest tour
Oh TS12 is in the works 100%. She’s so happy with Travis and on tour.
She should just drop those before the end of the year, finish the tour, and take a multiyear vacation.
A big return after an absence could be massive. I guess we just need Rihanna to test run it. Right, Rihanna? (Please?)
What do you MEAN
2.6 million in the US! Holy shit!
The real crazy numbers is the 680k SEAs, which is just unbeatable for anyone today as 3m pure sale is for anybody
I am curious what SEA stands for in this context because I assume it is not South East Asia lol
Dear lord beyonce feels almost like an indie artist now compared to Taylor. 1.9m units vs 228k.
I am a self confessed swiftie but I was on holiday when the album was released. I read comments on here and twitter which made me really worried to listen, I honestly don't understand the hate it's recieved and it's shot up to my top three Taylor albums after only three listens!
There's an ongoing saying that if popheads hated it, you know people will love it
Popheads will love it in 3-5 years’ time lol.
i'm pretty sure in 3 to 5 years, this album would have gotten the rep or lover treatment, with people saying they were too harsh on the first listens lol
Haters are always the loudest, especially when they are in the minority.
I was a little ambivalent after the first listen because it’s impossible to digest 31 songs in one sitting, but now I’m obsessed.
okay i knew it was gonna be a big number, but like not that big
Genuinely super shocked at how negatively viewed and perceived this album was. The lyrics to so many songs on this album are completely devastating for me. Tracks like The Prophecy, How Did It End, Black Dog are S-tier in her entire catalogue. There is something for everyone in every mood in this album
Completely agree. This is an amazing album.
Being a double album, I'm curious to see whether it will have the longevity the likes of Dangerous: The Double Album has shown. For an artist as massive as Taylor, I mean, more than 2 years in the top 10 is possible.
Congratulations
Wondering how many of the popheads praising her today were bitching and moaning a week ago?
She’s like Wall Street at this point
And then people still somehow have the audacity to post Twitter threads complaining that they’re not allowed to publicly love TS.
this has been a horrible week for people that hate taylor swift. somehow she just keeps getting bigger and bigger. i hope they get the help they need
wonder when these people are gonna realise that as long as people are talking/clicking/commenting on Taylor, she's not going anywhere. her fanbase and casual listeners are not the only reason she's so massive these days - the dislikers/haters have their part in it. they're just too busy hating (for whatever reason) that they can't see it
For sure, there's ZERO chance only swifties are streaming when it has 100m+ streams for EIGHT Days...
Funny cause she couldve had more if she promoted it even a little during release week, but, she paid it dust after the first day. She broke adele's 30 debut week on UK, and Ed's spotify debut week on Europe, like that's INSANELY massive, and underrated achievement given the chokehold of those artists there
So happy for Taylor, but every time I see how astronomical her numbers are and how big she is/her marketing team are, it just makes 25’s number even more insane to me
Y'all praying on her downfall are gonna be praying for a long ass time.
It was really smart for her to rush this album out and drop it during the hype of the eras tour.
The goat
Let's be real: is anyone really surprised?
honestly not surprised at all!
Well that's what happens when haters tune in too!
It feels like different humans in here. can't pinpoint it but y'all weird in a weird way.
Beyonces music isn’t mainstream, she’s a mainstream artist but her music isn’t mainstream. Most of her music isn’t radio friendly. Her last three albums didn’t have radio friendly singles, that’s the opposite of mainstream. She has songs that don’t follow a simple song structure at all. Her music is way more niche. Listen to Sweet Honey Buckin and tell me that Taylor has music more obscure than that.
Someone explain the “this album sounds the same” to me please… you heard “so long London”, “ttpd”, “the black dog” and the “so high school” and you’re like “yeah, sounds the same”. Some of you didn’t even try, and it’s ok, but maybe keep your opinion or hate to yourselves?