Just three days after the release of “Midnights”, Taylor Swift broke her own record: she sold more than 1.2 million units. Until then, “Reputation” (2017) had held the record for most sales within a week. This was announced by Billboard on Monday (October 24).
What is special about this achievement is that more than 80 percent of the successes can be traced back to downloads and physical purchases. Only less than 20 percent are based on streams.
Recently, their tenth record also broke the record for the most streamed album in 24 hours in Spotify history.
Taylor Swift encourages fans to buy
Since it has been possible to listen to music almost everywhere and free of charge, sales have decreased more and more in recent years. It is therefore all the more remarkable that approx. 955,000 units of the profits (over 80 percent) from “Midnights” come from digital download purchases as well as the physical purchase of CDs, cassettes and vinyls. Only a fraction of the numbers are based on simply playing Swift’s music. This was shown by data from Luminate.
Convincing her “Swifties” to buy the work instead of listening to it online for free seems like a surefire way for the musician to chart success.
Iron Maiden delivered another example of the relevance of sales last year with “Senjutsu” (2021). The LP was the group’s biggest chart success in more than four decades. CD and vinyl sales as well as cooperation with Target and Walmart were largely responsible for this as well.
The streaming records of the last few years
In 2015, Adele’s “25” had achieved the then sales record with more than 3.3 million units. Adele was then replaced by “Reputation” in 2017.
At “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” by Kendrick Lamar and “Renaissance” by Beyonce were initially expected to hit the one million mark in seven days – but neither record touched this mark within the first week.
Taylor Swift may be back on tour
On Monday (October 24), Swift hinted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she might be playing live shows again soon: “I think I should take a chance. When the time comes, we will. I miss it,” she told Jimmy Fallon. This would be their first tour since 2018.
Listen to “Midnights” here: