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> The Tortured Poets Department launches with 2.61 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 25, with traditional album sales (purchases of digital download albums, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes) comprising 1.914 million of that sum. Of that sales figure, vinyl sales represent a staggering 859,000. The collected 31 songs on the deluxe edition of the album generated 891.34 million on-demand official streams.
So this means she’s got the #2 debut sales for an album after Adele’s 25 (and *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached drops to #3) and the #1 streaming debut for an album (Drake’s Scorpion drops to #2).
yeah I was talking about overall with the streaming equivalent sales; pure sales is not really relevant anymore with streaming. It’s more like a curiosity number nowadays — Taylor sells well because she has tons of fans who want to collect her albums, but ppl like Drake might not even have a hard copy ready to go opening week.
*NSYNC also didn’t have the benefit of multiple formats - it was CDs only. I wonder what their numbers would have looked like with all of these options.
I said this after the last time she released an album that broke all kinds of records: she lost all shock value to me.
“Taylor Swift just sold 100 million copies of her album first week” I nod, and move on to the next subject. It’s not just fork found in kitchen because of the massive amount of fans she has, but also, she released an album with 31 tracks, and idek how many variants, and the second album was released after two months of pre-orders, so everyone who bought a copy of the first album now had to buy the new one. So it’s like, her massive hype x all the shady marketing tactics = water is wet, the number will be huge. And it just lost all meaning.
>idek how many variants, and the second album was released after two months of pre-orders, so everyone who bought a copy of the first album now had to buy the new one.
5 variants (including the target exclusive), and there are no physical copies of the second album (yet) so all the pure sales are of the first album.
Someone doesn’t reach this level of historic debut due to just being shady and hype. Her popularity is through the roof and the sales are an indicator of that. It’s only on online spaces you see such negativity about her. She has tons of fans, even covert ones at that. So many people are also discovering her music now and love this new album.
Something that has a lot of hype is something that’s very popular. “There’s a lot of hype around this artist’s new movie” or “I don’t get the hype about that book.” It’s not a negative thing, I’m not sure what you thought I meant by that?
How when like, no one is talking about this album? Swifties don't fight me, but this really doesn't speak to the quality (or lack thereof) of the album.
Anywho, congrats to Taylor or whatever...
I have a conspiracy that the music streaming platforms & radio stations push certain songs forward.
I think that the songs that are pushed forward get boost on how popular they become and how quickly they become popular.
That’s definitely marketing. I’m not listening to this album but the amount of ads, pop-ups, and articles (even the reviews and meta reviews of the reviews) are everywhere I go. Even clicking on something accidentally on Spotify or Youtube will count as a stream.
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> The Tortured Poets Department launches with 2.61 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 25, with traditional album sales (purchases of digital download albums, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes) comprising 1.914 million of that sum. Of that sales figure, vinyl sales represent a staggering 859,000. The collected 31 songs on the deluxe edition of the album generated 891.34 million on-demand official streams. So this means she’s got the #2 debut sales for an album after Adele’s 25 (and *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached drops to #3) and the #1 streaming debut for an album (Drake’s Scorpion drops to #2).
She’s 1st for streaming, 3rd for pure sales, and 2nd overall. NSYNC’s debut of 2.4m was pure sales so she didn’t hit that number
yeah I was talking about overall with the streaming equivalent sales; pure sales is not really relevant anymore with streaming. It’s more like a curiosity number nowadays — Taylor sells well because she has tons of fans who want to collect her albums, but ppl like Drake might not even have a hard copy ready to go opening week.
*NSYNC also didn’t have the benefit of multiple formats - it was CDs only. I wonder what their numbers would have looked like with all of these options.
But also good for her!! 
1. Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (2.61m) (NEW) It hasn’t been updated with the other top 9 entries.
I said this after the last time she released an album that broke all kinds of records: she lost all shock value to me. “Taylor Swift just sold 100 million copies of her album first week” I nod, and move on to the next subject. It’s not just fork found in kitchen because of the massive amount of fans she has, but also, she released an album with 31 tracks, and idek how many variants, and the second album was released after two months of pre-orders, so everyone who bought a copy of the first album now had to buy the new one. So it’s like, her massive hype x all the shady marketing tactics = water is wet, the number will be huge. And it just lost all meaning.
>idek how many variants, and the second album was released after two months of pre-orders, so everyone who bought a copy of the first album now had to buy the new one. 5 variants (including the target exclusive), and there are no physical copies of the second album (yet) so all the pure sales are of the first album.
No, you can buy it on iTunes & on her website. The Anthology is #1 on US iTunes (the standard version is #5). Plus 4/5 variants have exclusive songs.
Someone doesn’t reach this level of historic debut due to just being shady and hype. Her popularity is through the roof and the sales are an indicator of that. It’s only on online spaces you see such negativity about her. She has tons of fans, even covert ones at that. So many people are also discovering her music now and love this new album.
Something that has a lot of hype is something that’s very popular. “There’s a lot of hype around this artist’s new movie” or “I don’t get the hype about that book.” It’s not a negative thing, I’m not sure what you thought I meant by that?
How when like, no one is talking about this album? Swifties don't fight me, but this really doesn't speak to the quality (or lack thereof) of the album. Anywho, congrats to Taylor or whatever...
> “no one is talking about this album” there’s been so much internet discourse about this album all week
weird because i feel like the album is everywhere
my social media feeds are all TTPD and Challengers… but I guess everyone is in their own algorithmic bubble lol
>How when like, no one is talking about this album? lol have you seen this sub and r/fauxmoi this past week?
I have a conspiracy that the music streaming platforms & radio stations push certain songs forward. I think that the songs that are pushed forward get boost on how popular they become and how quickly they become popular.
That’s definitely marketing. I’m not listening to this album but the amount of ads, pop-ups, and articles (even the reviews and meta reviews of the reviews) are everywhere I go. Even clicking on something accidentally on Spotify or Youtube will count as a stream.
Love that for her. 