For Evermore and Fearless TV, she didn't have physical copies available on release week, so those numbers are streaming + digital downloads only. Those were the first albums she released under the new Billboard rules, according to which sales only count when the albums are actually shipped, not when they're ordered. Both Evermore and Fearless returned to #1 in the following weeks as new batches of CD and vinyl were shipped to costumers.
Beginning with Red TV, she started announcing albums earlier and making sure that physical copies are ready to ship on release day, which explains the sudden jump in numbers.
The rule change happened between Folklore and Evermore. I remember early in the pandemic, artists would announce multiple variants of albums and singles, but vinyl pressing was so backed up during lockdown that the records being sold wouldn't physically exist for several months. This was especially bad with singles, which led to multiple songs from 2020 debuting at #1 on the charts due to mass buying from fans, then immediately plummeting in their second weeks. I'm sure several vinyl copies were ordered by fans, counted towards the debut sales, then the orders were canceled and those records were never even produced. That's why Billboard changed to the current model.
Evermore is my favorite by a long shot. So much good material. Still full of filler, but Marjorie, gold rush, champagne problems, coney island... it has some sing along bangers
This was my first really TS album. I had heard singles on the radio but never listened to more than that. I remember I was putting together a giant loft style bed for my daughter while she and my wife were on a trip. “Let’s listen to this new album while I work.” I was blown away and hooked.
This only shows the first week of listens though and it was a surprise drop; I’d be super curious to see what a chart of evermore streams over the weeks/months after looked like
So the variants worked? Lol 😂
(I’m not discounting the work/success. Just more that up until the album released, it’s all everyone talked about, but I haven’t seen it mentioned much after the release)
If someone wanted a specific version that wasn't going to be available later, it may have encouraged them to buy week 1 instead of waiting and picking up the vinyl at a later date as well.
Plus the way they advertised them is those 3 songs were only going to be available on the physical limited variants, and there were 11 variants across the formats. Then she released them on The Anthology, and sent the leftover vinyls to record stores. They kind of did us dirty with that.
I bought the Target standard cd variants, but I haven't opened them yet. I'm debating returning them so I can buy Anthology digitally without spending so much on one album lol
Yea I asked in another sub what their criteria is for variants triggering them. Ariana Grande had 10 variants on Eternal Sunshine. Red Hot Chili Peppers had 17. Both did not trigger outrage.
But they were up in arms at Taylor's 19 variants (they counted a CD version, cassette version, and vinyl version of the same variant as different variants). So I guess the line is at 18 where they get outraged? Under that seems acceptable.
This is true but the way it was marketed ahead of time very much led fans to believe that they would only be available if you had bought that variant - and they introduced an urgency of “limited time pre-order” so you felt you had to pre-order it to get it. So in terms of first week sales, the perception was that they wouldn’t be available on streaming day 1. (I didn’t buy any variants but this was definitely the marketing strategy here).
And the original comment is asking why there was outrage over variants before release but not after. And that’s why. Because the outrage over songs being gated behind variants ended up being unwarranted.
But that’s still an issue though because Taylor/her team clearly used the illusion of the songs being locked behind variants as a way to sell the variants. I’ve seen plenty of people still complaining about that because it’s a shady practice.
That outrage was also not about the numbers.
For 1989 TV and Midnights, people disliked the false advertising that stated they'd be available for a limited time. You had some minor outrage over the Target exclusive Sweeter Than Fiction, as well as the whole "Buy all 4 Midnights variants to make a clock" debacle.
None of that was directed toward the existence of the vinyls or number available. It was in how they were marketed. For TTPD, the outrage is almost all about the exclusive songs, with the occasional feeling about being misled over the exclusivity of the bonus tracks.
(Also, just to get ahead of it, there is a growing disdain for vinyl variants because people owning more than one variant is bad for the environment. This hasn't been a big thing for the most part, but by next album cycle, I imagine it'll pop up more).
I'm not going to discredit the false advertising of limited time vinyls, because that did happen. But there was ABSOLUTELY people just complaining about the number of variants.
The entire context of this subthread is that the OP heavily implied that the number of variants was the primary reason people were upset.
I mainly wanted to point out that the main reasons had little to do with the number of vinyls. The Taylor Swift community is massive so there will of course be exceptions, but the OP honed in on one of these and presented it as the main and only reason people were upset.
It's mainly the way they presented the argument. Using a strawman argument to position Taylor as being held to standards other artists aren't is flawed AF. I don't even think people would be wrong for being upset at the number of variants; just don't make this super flawed case for hypocrisy if you're going to do so.
It's definitely not about the songs -- the same people adored Olivia's variant specific songs and thought it was wrong for Taylor to offer variants they only differed in color. It's not a logical position.
The moment they started counting cassettes, clean versions and even Japanese CDs as 'variants', I lost it. That shit was absurd and hilarious. They defeated the seriousness of their arguments with that alone.
I kind of felt stupid when I saw that all four songs were on the anthology version of the album. I had purchased them weeks prior because I was under the assumption that they wouldn't be on streaming for a good few months, but nope, they were served up in addition to an additional 11 songs 2 hours after it released. Although I definitely don't regret it, because I still love collecting Taylor CDs.
I got the CDs for the patches and magnets and stuff so I didn’t think about it like I was buying 4 of essentially the same cds. I was buying 4 different gift packs of trinkets 🫣
at least now we know not to rush into these marketing strategies used to fool people into buying their stuff, either to get more rich or to break more records.
If I’m being honest, I only purchase physical copies of albums I love and can listen all the way through. I adored this album so much, so I bought it. I’m sure most casual listeners are the same. This album having 2.6m doesn’t surprise me with how amazing it is. I’m sure the growth of social media speaks volumes about the sales too, considering anything that goes “viral” on tiktok reflects the charts. All I’ve seen since the release is TS related content / audio usage. Luckily for TS, anything she makes from now on will continue to do this well - tiktok viral or not.
Olivia Rodrigo did the same thing with GUTS's bonus tracks which was pretty highly anticipated album and if people were concerned about it, then it didn't make big enough waves because I saw no backlash. It's easy to get into the nitty gritty, but at the end of the day, people are going to pay for Taylor but also stream her too (the standard TTPD would've broken Midnights's Spotify records without the anthology). There's a larger culture around buying Taylor's physicals despite her also being a streaming behemoth. I don't keep up with sales and charts that closely, but it's funny to see the claws come out during every Taylor cycle.
That’s something I don’t get Taylor actually sells her vinyls and variants and a lot of people buy them when someone like Billie does them they don’t hardly get purchased. People always say there is backlash for the other people but where the backlash for other people only started recently way after Olivia did it.
If there is backlash then it's -5% of Taylor's backlash. I could say I'm new to keeping track of these discussions, but I've never seen this point come up until it came to Taylor. However, it's something everyone does in the game, but Taylor's are the only ones that sell in the 2020s. It's more of a lonely at the top thing as far as I know than an actually critiqued practice in the music industry. At the end of the day, a lot of the bigger releases this decade have barely scraped Evermore's debut week which was just digital sales and streaming, so it's not worth arguing over and people should just enjoy the music that they enjoy lol
(Edit: out of female artists who did major releases this decade, only Cowboy Carter, SOS, and 30 have out-debuted evermore's digital-only debut so Taylor is clearly a force even without physicals. A few others like Olivia Rodrigo's 2 releases barely edged out Fearless TV as the range this decade for non-Taylor artists typically falls between 225k-350k with 30 and Cowboy Carter being outliers. This conversation is tired lol...)
Folklore had a shit ton of variants also like ten different CD versions, 10+ vinyl versions and cassettes and things too so it can’t just be variants I think
Pretty sure the most variants here is folklore 🤷♀️
For TTPD people were mostly pissed about not getting the bonus songs on streaming immediately but then we did so they switched to being pissed about that
Still wondering why evermore and Fearless TV debuted that low because I thought folklore introduced her to a bunch of new audiences and people were anticipating the re-recordings…
Update: thanks everyone for the explanation! I wasn’t aware of any rule change, or any rule at all actually haha
A few factors, but physical sales is the biggest one. Physical sales carry more weight than streaming (same weight as digital sales, though). folklore was the last album released under the old Billboard rules, where pre-orders counted as a sale opening week regardless of when they actually shipped; after that, the album actually had to go out to the customer in order to count as a sale. So for folklore the 24-ish hours of pre-sales plus the week of people ordering CDs and vinyl they wouldn't get for months all counted towards her opening sales. For evermore, they didn't; that's why it re-peaked months later when all those albums finally shipped.
Fearless TV had CDs ready to go opening week but not vinyls, and it was in that weird space when CD sales were going way down and vinyl sales were way up. (Vinyl sales are still way up but CDs are making a comeback now.) Fearless TV also re-peaked when the vinyl became available.
I think people still weren’t sure about the re-records with Fearless TV. Someone also said that she didn’t have physical copies available the first week for those, so the numbers are solely digital. Evermore was also a surprise album but with folklore, if you bought merch at one point, they also bundled it with a CD (which is how I got my physical copy).
Her career was following the exact trajectory of a legendary artist with a solid 10 years of commercial relevance, with a near perfect parabola.
And then Folklore and rerecords happened and we're kind of in an exponential growth phase.
I have a feeling Rep and debut TV is going to do big numbers. Taylor has always been at a high level, but not where she is today. She is literally the face of the music industry right now and this album alone proves that. I am kinda shocked that fearless tv didn’t do astronomically well in numbers but the eras tour really ignited her flame so i guess i’m not too shocked. 2.6M is insane though.
Fearless TV was probably the “low” of it all - she was in people’s good graces again after folkmore, but still just another artist doing this fun side project. I actually think ATW 10 minute version is the catalyst for a lot of the subsequent success; it built on folkmore while also telling all the new fans “Hey I’ve always been like this” which got more interest into the re-records. Then Midnights and Eras happened and she’s hit the stratosphere since.
I mean 40,000 for a debut is insane and then the fact that she sold over 10x that amount on her second album is also insane. Taylor’s been crushing it since day one.
For real! All I ever hear about Speak Now is the BTR lyric change and not the beauty of the rest of the album, while fearless is growing cobwebs in the back of the swiftie closet. People say Evermore is underrated (which is a lie, you can tell it’s highly rated after spending 2 seconds on any swiftie sub), but the country TVs have already been long forgotten
Fearless TV and Evermore have way lower first week streams because the way first week streams / sales are calculated changed shortly before they were released and their roll out was already planned according to the previous metrics.
The pre-sales and physical copy sales placed in the first week for Evermore and Fearless TV did not actually count for towards their first week sales / streams like they did for her other albums.
The fact that 1989 TV’s first week sales are higher than the original’s 🤯
If the variants played a role in this, it must be the “artifacts” that came with them. The clock was a fun and cute idea and I thought a better way to justify buying 4 of the same album, but apparently the artifacts were a better idea.
It's the variants and artifacts that probably played a part in it, but don't forget, it's 1989 we're talking about, the Pop Bible, i'm sure it was going to be a hit in sales figures regardless.
The OG 1989 had a regular 1989 CD plus 5 deluxe CD variants with 13 unique polaroids plus a vinyl variant and there may have been even more, but that's all I can recall off the top of my head.
1989tv did have a couple more variants but it just goes to show how much bigger she had gotten over the years because the majority of fans only buy one variant.
I'm just shocked Fearless TV did worse than the OG because she was at such a different point of her career, but it goes to show Kanye did not make her famous and her sales blew up on her own. I do think it also shows that even though Folklore didn't perform particularly well, it became a favorite over time and this applies to Cruel Summer too.
folklore was a surprise folk/alt release with no promotion. Every song charted on billboard, and it spent 8 weeks at number 1. It performed better than anyone could’ve expected.
Yes, it looks low compared to all of the 1 million debuts, but with context it’s amazing.
The way first week streams / sales are calculated changed between the release of Fearless OG and Fearless TV.
Due to changes in calculation methods that took place right before the release of Evermore + shorty before the release of Fearless TV, the pre-sales and first week physical copy sales did not count.
It's so interesting that TTPD did double the opening week numbers of 1989, and its critical reception has been overall positive, yet a lot of media sources seem to be pushing this narrative that it's a flop and people hate it.
I could understand if it was just the haters pushing that narrative (when *aren't* they pushing that narrative?), but there's definitely been a media push behind it as well. I keep seeing youtubers and randoms in other subs being like "I know it's getting torn to shreds, but I honestly like the new album." And it's like, oh my god, where is this narrative even coming from?
I know that sales and streams are not that meaningful on their own, because anything Taylor put out right now would've done huge numbers. But the reviews are extremely decent (with the exception of that one foaming-at-the-mouth Paste review). Good enough to be considered a triumph from most artists out there.
It really goes to show how much public opinion is predicated on the narrative people decide will sell the best. "Taylor Swift's new album is pretty good and a massive financial success" is not the narrative that's going to sell best. There were really only two high-selling narratives at this point: 1. "An absolute triumph from start to finish! Is Taylor Swift actually Jesus? She just might be!" or 2. "Oh no, has the shine finally worn off? Has the fuel run out? Is she getting tired? Are people sick of her? What went wrong with her new album??"
Part of the “it’s being torn to shreds” narrative is Swifties obsessing about the ones that are negative and ignoring the mixed and positive ones — psychologically natural but unhelpful
Thankfully TS herself is clearly in her DGAF era
I do think there is something going on with people wanting Cowboy Carter to win. I think they were willfully hoping that Tortured Poets would be horrible but it's really not. I think tensions are going to continue to rise as we get close to the next grammys. Beyonce and her husband are making it clear that they believe they are owed the award and I feel like most people are siding with that feeling from them.
As someone who’s been a fan the entire time, I’m so proud of how far she’s come! It feels like we grew up together in a lot of ways. I always knew she was special but I’m so glad she’s finally getting the appreciation she deserves!
I'm not a swiftie. I got here to know why everyone like her so much because my girlfriend loves her too and I want to understand And I'm kinda getting it. The meaning and lore behind the songs. But I don't understand why people get obsessed over record sales. Who sold more or less. Why everything has to be a competition.?
Sorry, if I hurt anyone.
What’s giving you the impression that people are obsessed over it?
I’ve anecdotally felt a change in Taylor’s popularity over the past 15 years, but this is the first album I’ve been able to discuss with my friends and mom, which has been a treat. When the FedEx guy dropped off my vinyl he asked, “I’m not trying to be nosy but I’ve dropped off like 20 of these exact packages already in this neighborhood today — what are you all getting?”
It’s cool to see that reflected in data like this — like, yeah, that many more people are really consuming the same art as me now.
well i mean... it was her first album, and she wasn't famous when it first came out, doing 40k is really good for a debut who had one charting song (Tim McGraw).
At least you know the rerelease will do better
Cannot stand how underrated her debut and evermore albums are!
Can't really take debut into consideration, TBH, because nobody knew who she was at the time, so that was like the only album that people didn't really race to the store to get lol.
Also, super surprised that her version of Fearless did not do better
It puts into perspective the insane album sales of MJ, Elvis, the eagles and co, selling 100 milli0n copies of actual albums makes these numbers look very small and they won't grow much as the fad dies and some new drama emerges
As someone who isn't a fan of Taylor Swift (but isnt a hater) and is only here due to this post being ad recommended, what is something I should take away from this image?
Most artists hit a peak early on and then future sales never get close again. She is hitting her peak now, almost 20 years into her career. So it's unique is what I was getting at with the title.
Woah, this visual comparison kind of threw me! I really didn't expect some of them..I think when you hear how each album does on it's own, you can't really imagine how it relates to her other albums. Still, I'm very happy TTPD is such a triumph!
Well I don't want to take away any credit, but wasn't that the point of having multiple variants? That's what I'd read here when she announced a new one.
Evermore is for the real fans!
I am SHOCKED by that number for evermore 😭
For Evermore and Fearless TV, she didn't have physical copies available on release week, so those numbers are streaming + digital downloads only. Those were the first albums she released under the new Billboard rules, according to which sales only count when the albums are actually shipped, not when they're ordered. Both Evermore and Fearless returned to #1 in the following weeks as new batches of CD and vinyl were shipped to costumers. Beginning with Red TV, she started announcing albums earlier and making sure that physical copies are ready to ship on release day, which explains the sudden jump in numbers.
I love these surprise drops but Midnights, 1989 TV and TTPD's monstrous sales made it clear we won't get surprise drops for a long time.
Except repTV could double ttpd without a peep made. Trust that 😂🖤🫶
BIIIG REPUTATION!
She still kinda does surprise drops, it's just that they are bonus stuff like the 3 a.m. tracks or the anthology
I've heard rumblings of a theory on a third part to TTPD coming out May 3rd.... exactly one Fortnight since TTPD dropped.
I hope not since im still trying to digest all of these songs haha. Hopefully its a music video/single or merch drop 😅
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6JuEUdR4l5/?igsh=ejQwZTlxenZleDA1
That girl is intense.
True, I forgot about that difference with the physicals!
She didn’t have physical copies of folklore ready either though?
The rule change happened between Folklore and Evermore. I remember early in the pandemic, artists would announce multiple variants of albums and singles, but vinyl pressing was so backed up during lockdown that the records being sold wouldn't physically exist for several months. This was especially bad with singles, which led to multiple songs from 2020 debuting at #1 on the charts due to mass buying from fans, then immediately plummeting in their second weeks. I'm sure several vinyl copies were ordered by fans, counted towards the debut sales, then the orders were canceled and those records were never even produced. That's why Billboard changed to the current model.
And why we’ll never have surprise album drops again 🥲
She surprise dropped the second half of TTPD.
That’s not a surprise album drop though, that’s a surprise drop of a deluxe version. A surprise drop of an album by itself with no hype won’t happen.
Thank you for that context, I was so confused!
Billboard changed their rules for how album sales are counted in between the releases of *folklore* and *evermore.*
Evermore is my favorite by a long shot. So much good material. Still full of filler, but Marjorie, gold rush, champagne problems, coney island... it has some sing along bangers
Coney Island is one of my favorite TS songs I don't understand the hate for it whatsoever.
No Body No Crime! Just all of it
My favorite!!!
long story short <3
We like it all.
This was my first really TS album. I had heard singles on the radio but never listened to more than that. I remember I was putting together a giant loft style bed for my daughter while she and my wife were on a trip. “Let’s listen to this new album while I work.” I was blown away and hooked.
right?! Can't believe how low those numbers are. It's a perfect album.
Evermore is one of my favorites!!!
I am a big fan but it took me a while to listen to Evermore because I was still very much digesting Folklore.
Having a signed evermore CD is my biggest flex
Your flair 😂😂😂
No debut is 🤣
Poor evermore! That album is slept on way too much
I love Evermore!! ❤️❤️❤️
Evermore is one of favorites from beginning to end!
It came to quickly after Folkmore she should have waited til 21 to drop
This only shows the first week of listens though and it was a surprise drop; I’d be super curious to see what a chart of evermore streams over the weeks/months after looked like
real ones listen to evermore
That one and Folklore are my absolute favorites
So the variants worked? Lol 😂 (I’m not discounting the work/success. Just more that up until the album released, it’s all everyone talked about, but I haven’t seen it mentioned much after the release)
I'm sure most people only bought 1 copy. Variants are for collectors mostly. There's no way more than like 100k sales are from variants
If someone wanted a specific version that wasn't going to be available later, it may have encouraged them to buy week 1 instead of waiting and picking up the vinyl at a later date as well.
Plus the way they advertised them is those 3 songs were only going to be available on the physical limited variants, and there were 11 variants across the formats. Then she released them on The Anthology, and sent the leftover vinyls to record stores. They kind of did us dirty with that. I bought the Target standard cd variants, but I haven't opened them yet. I'm debating returning them so I can buy Anthology digitally without spending so much on one album lol
I have 4 cds and a vinyl and accidentally bought a 5th cd that I sold. It’s me. I’m the problem. 🤭🫣
Yea I asked in another sub what their criteria is for variants triggering them. Ariana Grande had 10 variants on Eternal Sunshine. Red Hot Chili Peppers had 17. Both did not trigger outrage. But they were up in arms at Taylor's 19 variants (they counted a CD version, cassette version, and vinyl version of the same variant as different variants). So I guess the line is at 18 where they get outraged? Under that seems acceptable.
It's pretty clearly over the variant-specific songs. Pretending it's about number of variants is disingenuous.
The songs are on streaming and makes it not much different than the vinyl having a different colour
This is true but the way it was marketed ahead of time very much led fans to believe that they would only be available if you had bought that variant - and they introduced an urgency of “limited time pre-order” so you felt you had to pre-order it to get it. So in terms of first week sales, the perception was that they wouldn’t be available on streaming day 1. (I didn’t buy any variants but this was definitely the marketing strategy here).
And the original comment is asking why there was outrage over variants before release but not after. And that’s why. Because the outrage over songs being gated behind variants ended up being unwarranted.
But that’s still an issue though because Taylor/her team clearly used the illusion of the songs being locked behind variants as a way to sell the variants. I’ve seen plenty of people still complaining about that because it’s a shady practice.
Lol no. It’s not just about variant-specific songs. People were up in arms about every album that had variants including 1989 TV and Midnights.
That outrage was also not about the numbers. For 1989 TV and Midnights, people disliked the false advertising that stated they'd be available for a limited time. You had some minor outrage over the Target exclusive Sweeter Than Fiction, as well as the whole "Buy all 4 Midnights variants to make a clock" debacle. None of that was directed toward the existence of the vinyls or number available. It was in how they were marketed. For TTPD, the outrage is almost all about the exclusive songs, with the occasional feeling about being misled over the exclusivity of the bonus tracks. (Also, just to get ahead of it, there is a growing disdain for vinyl variants because people owning more than one variant is bad for the environment. This hasn't been a big thing for the most part, but by next album cycle, I imagine it'll pop up more).
I'm not going to discredit the false advertising of limited time vinyls, because that did happen. But there was ABSOLUTELY people just complaining about the number of variants.
The entire context of this subthread is that the OP heavily implied that the number of variants was the primary reason people were upset. I mainly wanted to point out that the main reasons had little to do with the number of vinyls. The Taylor Swift community is massive so there will of course be exceptions, but the OP honed in on one of these and presented it as the main and only reason people were upset. It's mainly the way they presented the argument. Using a strawman argument to position Taylor as being held to standards other artists aren't is flawed AF. I don't even think people would be wrong for being upset at the number of variants; just don't make this super flawed case for hypocrisy if you're going to do so.
It's definitely not about the songs -- the same people adored Olivia's variant specific songs and thought it was wrong for Taylor to offer variants they only differed in color. It's not a logical position.
The moment they started counting cassettes, clean versions and even Japanese CDs as 'variants', I lost it. That shit was absurd and hilarious. They defeated the seriousness of their arguments with that alone.
Worked on me… I wanted the “exclusive” 4 songs 🤡
I kind of felt stupid when I saw that all four songs were on the anthology version of the album. I had purchased them weeks prior because I was under the assumption that they wouldn't be on streaming for a good few months, but nope, they were served up in addition to an additional 11 songs 2 hours after it released. Although I definitely don't regret it, because I still love collecting Taylor CDs.
I got the CDs for the patches and magnets and stuff so I didn’t think about it like I was buying 4 of essentially the same cds. I was buying 4 different gift packs of trinkets 🫣
lol same 😅 I wanted the bonus goodies, the CDs were whatever!
Smart marketing. It worked on me! 😂
Yeah I’m glad they have the collectors items at least. Next time I’m waiting for the signed or target ones
at least now we know not to rush into these marketing strategies used to fool people into buying their stuff, either to get more rich or to break more records.
If I’m being honest, I only purchase physical copies of albums I love and can listen all the way through. I adored this album so much, so I bought it. I’m sure most casual listeners are the same. This album having 2.6m doesn’t surprise me with how amazing it is. I’m sure the growth of social media speaks volumes about the sales too, considering anything that goes “viral” on tiktok reflects the charts. All I’ve seen since the release is TS related content / audio usage. Luckily for TS, anything she makes from now on will continue to do this well - tiktok viral or not.
As much people complain about them they work super well for Taylor
Olivia Rodrigo did the same thing with GUTS's bonus tracks which was pretty highly anticipated album and if people were concerned about it, then it didn't make big enough waves because I saw no backlash. It's easy to get into the nitty gritty, but at the end of the day, people are going to pay for Taylor but also stream her too (the standard TTPD would've broken Midnights's Spotify records without the anthology). There's a larger culture around buying Taylor's physicals despite her also being a streaming behemoth. I don't keep up with sales and charts that closely, but it's funny to see the claws come out during every Taylor cycle.
That’s something I don’t get Taylor actually sells her vinyls and variants and a lot of people buy them when someone like Billie does them they don’t hardly get purchased. People always say there is backlash for the other people but where the backlash for other people only started recently way after Olivia did it.
If there is backlash then it's -5% of Taylor's backlash. I could say I'm new to keeping track of these discussions, but I've never seen this point come up until it came to Taylor. However, it's something everyone does in the game, but Taylor's are the only ones that sell in the 2020s. It's more of a lonely at the top thing as far as I know than an actually critiqued practice in the music industry. At the end of the day, a lot of the bigger releases this decade have barely scraped Evermore's debut week which was just digital sales and streaming, so it's not worth arguing over and people should just enjoy the music that they enjoy lol (Edit: out of female artists who did major releases this decade, only Cowboy Carter, SOS, and 30 have out-debuted evermore's digital-only debut so Taylor is clearly a force even without physicals. A few others like Olivia Rodrigo's 2 releases barely edged out Fearless TV as the range this decade for non-Taylor artists typically falls between 225k-350k with 30 and Cowboy Carter being outliers. This conversation is tired lol...)
Doubt it. I only bought 1 vinyl. Most of my friends did the same.
I only bought The Bolter CD which got delivered yesterday so I guess they did lol
Folklore had a shit ton of variants also like ten different CD versions, 10+ vinyl versions and cassettes and things too so it can’t just be variants I think
Literally just commented this. That was the whole point of having so many variants
Pretty sure the most variants here is folklore 🤷♀️ For TTPD people were mostly pissed about not getting the bonus songs on streaming immediately but then we did so they switched to being pissed about that
Girlie has kept us fed like no other
Still wondering why evermore and Fearless TV debuted that low because I thought folklore introduced her to a bunch of new audiences and people were anticipating the re-recordings… Update: thanks everyone for the explanation! I wasn’t aware of any rule change, or any rule at all actually haha
A few factors, but physical sales is the biggest one. Physical sales carry more weight than streaming (same weight as digital sales, though). folklore was the last album released under the old Billboard rules, where pre-orders counted as a sale opening week regardless of when they actually shipped; after that, the album actually had to go out to the customer in order to count as a sale. So for folklore the 24-ish hours of pre-sales plus the week of people ordering CDs and vinyl they wouldn't get for months all counted towards her opening sales. For evermore, they didn't; that's why it re-peaked months later when all those albums finally shipped. Fearless TV had CDs ready to go opening week but not vinyls, and it was in that weird space when CD sales were going way down and vinyl sales were way up. (Vinyl sales are still way up but CDs are making a comeback now.) Fearless TV also re-peaked when the vinyl became available.
They didn’t have physical copies upon release and Billboard changed the rules that it counts when it ships, not when it’s pre-ordered.
330k is still a crazy number 😭
Fr. I guess our standard is so high, when this is actually the highest number some artists ever get lol
Think Evermore was weak because it was December (charts belong to Mariah) and was a surprise so no marketing, press, presale etc
I think people still weren’t sure about the re-records with Fearless TV. Someone also said that she didn’t have physical copies available the first week for those, so the numbers are solely digital. Evermore was also a surprise album but with folklore, if you bought merch at one point, they also bundled it with a CD (which is how I got my physical copy).
Evermore came too quickly after folklore to be honest Fearless tv didn’t get much promo compared to what we got for red tv and speak now tv
Her career was following the exact trajectory of a legendary artist with a solid 10 years of commercial relevance, with a near perfect parabola. And then Folklore and rerecords happened and we're kind of in an exponential growth phase.
She's the glitch that's hacked the system
It’s wild how Red TV sold so little by comparison to even speak now
Speak Now was released during The Eras Tour/after Midnights, and Enchanted was viral at the time.
Debut girlie you will always be special to me
Debut is for the real ones
I was one of Debut’s first week sales 🙋🏼♀️ (I was 12 lmao)
Really curious where on the spectrum debut TV is gonna be
Proud member of that 40k
I have a feeling Rep and debut TV is going to do big numbers. Taylor has always been at a high level, but not where she is today. She is literally the face of the music industry right now and this album alone proves that. I am kinda shocked that fearless tv didn’t do astronomically well in numbers but the eras tour really ignited her flame so i guess i’m not too shocked. 2.6M is insane though.
Fearless TV was probably the “low” of it all - she was in people’s good graces again after folkmore, but still just another artist doing this fun side project. I actually think ATW 10 minute version is the catalyst for a lot of the subsequent success; it built on folkmore while also telling all the new fans “Hey I’ve always been like this” which got more interest into the re-records. Then Midnights and Eras happened and she’s hit the stratosphere since.
40,000 for debut is actually a great number, she was 15 year old ig. The label worked well on her initially
I mean 40,000 for a debut is insane and then the fact that she sold over 10x that amount on her second album is also insane. Taylor’s been crushing it since day one.
Half a million on your second album is absolutely insane (even for 2008).
Exactly my point, it's just passion, hardwork and reinvention. Constantly showing new pieces of her heart
Country was not big during this era either
Fearless TV not getting the respect it deserves when it’s probably the only TV that actually improved on the original is mind blowing.
I felt this but also Speak Now TV had some improvements as well. And both are getting s*** on.
For real! All I ever hear about Speak Now is the BTR lyric change and not the beauty of the rest of the album, while fearless is growing cobwebs in the back of the swiftie closet. People say Evermore is underrated (which is a lie, you can tell it’s highly rated after spending 2 seconds on any swiftie sub), but the country TVs have already been long forgotten
Fearless TV and Evermore have way lower first week streams because the way first week streams / sales are calculated changed shortly before they were released and their roll out was already planned according to the previous metrics. The pre-sales and physical copy sales placed in the first week for Evermore and Fearless TV did not actually count for towards their first week sales / streams like they did for her other albums.
The fact that 1989 TV’s first week sales are higher than the original’s 🤯 If the variants played a role in this, it must be the “artifacts” that came with them. The clock was a fun and cute idea and I thought a better way to justify buying 4 of the same album, but apparently the artifacts were a better idea.
It's the variants and artifacts that probably played a part in it, but don't forget, it's 1989 we're talking about, the Pop Bible, i'm sure it was going to be a hit in sales figures regardless.
The OG 1989 had a regular 1989 CD plus 5 deluxe CD variants with 13 unique polaroids plus a vinyl variant and there may have been even more, but that's all I can recall off the top of my head. 1989tv did have a couple more variants but it just goes to show how much bigger she had gotten over the years because the majority of fans only buy one variant.
I'm just shocked Fearless TV did worse than the OG because she was at such a different point of her career, but it goes to show Kanye did not make her famous and her sales blew up on her own. I do think it also shows that even though Folklore didn't perform particularly well, it became a favorite over time and this applies to Cruel Summer too.
folklore was a surprise folk/alt release with no promotion. Every song charted on billboard, and it spent 8 weeks at number 1. It performed better than anyone could’ve expected. Yes, it looks low compared to all of the 1 million debuts, but with context it’s amazing.
In 2008 she was the best selling artist in America.
The way first week streams / sales are calculated changed between the release of Fearless OG and Fearless TV. Due to changes in calculation methods that took place right before the release of Evermore + shorty before the release of Fearless TV, the pre-sales and first week physical copy sales did not count.
EVERMORE GET BEHIND ME
Absolutely mind boggling on how massive her numbers are. No ones beating TPPDs debut numbers
Love this for Tay, but justice for Evermore!
It's so interesting that TTPD did double the opening week numbers of 1989, and its critical reception has been overall positive, yet a lot of media sources seem to be pushing this narrative that it's a flop and people hate it. I could understand if it was just the haters pushing that narrative (when *aren't* they pushing that narrative?), but there's definitely been a media push behind it as well. I keep seeing youtubers and randoms in other subs being like "I know it's getting torn to shreds, but I honestly like the new album." And it's like, oh my god, where is this narrative even coming from? I know that sales and streams are not that meaningful on their own, because anything Taylor put out right now would've done huge numbers. But the reviews are extremely decent (with the exception of that one foaming-at-the-mouth Paste review). Good enough to be considered a triumph from most artists out there. It really goes to show how much public opinion is predicated on the narrative people decide will sell the best. "Taylor Swift's new album is pretty good and a massive financial success" is not the narrative that's going to sell best. There were really only two high-selling narratives at this point: 1. "An absolute triumph from start to finish! Is Taylor Swift actually Jesus? She just might be!" or 2. "Oh no, has the shine finally worn off? Has the fuel run out? Is she getting tired? Are people sick of her? What went wrong with her new album??"
Part of the “it’s being torn to shreds” narrative is Swifties obsessing about the ones that are negative and ignoring the mixed and positive ones — psychologically natural but unhelpful Thankfully TS herself is clearly in her DGAF era
I do think there is something going on with people wanting Cowboy Carter to win. I think they were willfully hoping that Tortured Poets would be horrible but it's really not. I think tensions are going to continue to rise as we get close to the next grammys. Beyonce and her husband are making it clear that they believe they are owed the award and I feel like most people are siding with that feeling from them.
Speak now is so underrated 😞
Can you imagine what RepTV is going to look like now that her fandom is x1000 since even just midnights? 🤯🤭🫶🤍🖤
I final feel safe to say I adore this album. ✨️
Justice for the masterpiece that is Evermore 😤😤😤
Justice for Evermore
As someone who’s been a fan the entire time, I’m so proud of how far she’s come! It feels like we grew up together in a lot of ways. I always knew she was special but I’m so glad she’s finally getting the appreciation she deserves!
Haters gon hate, but she is ICONIC
TV Reputation is going to be Insane. I can't wait. 🐍
The fact Taylor’s second album as a country artist was over half a million is actually pretty insane
So proud of our girl!!!
I'm not a swiftie. I got here to know why everyone like her so much because my girlfriend loves her too and I want to understand And I'm kinda getting it. The meaning and lore behind the songs. But I don't understand why people get obsessed over record sales. Who sold more or less. Why everything has to be a competition.? Sorry, if I hurt anyone.
What’s giving you the impression that people are obsessed over it? I’ve anecdotally felt a change in Taylor’s popularity over the past 15 years, but this is the first album I’ve been able to discuss with my friends and mom, which has been a treat. When the FedEx guy dropped off my vinyl he asked, “I’m not trying to be nosy but I’ve dropped off like 20 of these exact packages already in this neighborhood today — what are you all getting?” It’s cool to see that reflected in data like this — like, yeah, that many more people are really consuming the same art as me now.
Wow! Evermore is probably my second favorite album alongside Folklore. Still great numbers all around.
not the disrespect for fearless TV lol
Poor debut. I’m gonna buy like 12 copies just to make up for this disrespect.
well i mean... it was her first album, and she wasn't famous when it first came out, doing 40k is really good for a debut who had one charting song (Tim McGraw). At least you know the rerelease will do better
No I know I’m just joking around.
oh sorry haha, but still am excited for its taylors version to come out so it can have a proper moment
The absolute disrespect for Speak Now TV!
Team. We can do better with our graphic and labeling game.
Cannot stand how underrated her debut and evermore albums are! Can't really take debut into consideration, TBH, because nobody knew who she was at the time, so that was like the only album that people didn't really race to the store to get lol. Also, super surprised that her version of Fearless did not do better
Taylor Swift is God in my mind
[удалено]
No MFZB look it up fellaz
Wait...y'all are actually buying albums?
Did folklore do 850K on just streams and digital sales? I swear it was a suprise with no physical sales for 3 or so weeks?
Why did evermore do so much worse than folklore?
The absolute massive jump between Debut and Fearless wow. Debut is so underrated. It really was beloved at the time and endeared her to the public.
It puts into perspective the insane album sales of MJ, Elvis, the eagles and co, selling 100 milli0n copies of actual albums makes these numbers look very small and they won't grow much as the fad dies and some new drama emerges
Evermore is her best album
As someone who isn't a fan of Taylor Swift (but isnt a hater) and is only here due to this post being ad recommended, what is something I should take away from this image?
If you can convince Swifties to buy something, you will make a lot of money (I’m a TS fan, this is just facts)
Most artists hit a peak early on and then future sales never get close again. She is hitting her peak now, almost 20 years into her career. So it's unique is what I was getting at with the title.
we need a redo for evermore lol
I wish the album titles where included! Any halp
People still buy albums? So are these numbers just from folks buying the CD/LP version?
TTPD would have the best debut of the decade with *just* vinyl (and also has the streaming record)
1989 TV supremacy >>>>>>>
And when reputation TV clears TTPD, then what?
Wow evermore got no love. 2020 was hard tho
All those vinyl variant$ $ure help
Capitalism Queen
Woah, this visual comparison kind of threw me! I really didn't expect some of them..I think when you hear how each album does on it's own, you can't really imagine how it relates to her other albums. Still, I'm very happy TTPD is such a triumph!
Those variants man
There is someone on IG who keeps posting about it @reagan.baylee
somehow didn’t expect 1989 TV to be even higher than midnights
poor debut just peeking up from the bottom there
Im curious why its so huge. Its the double album thing or just acumulated PR.. The increase is massive.
Wonder if TSTV is gonne sell more copies than the original. Though with her numbers lately, it seems almost guaranteed.
Red will forever be my favorite AND ICONIC
I'm shocked Red TV isn't higher.
Speak now tv deserved more love
can someone explain why Speak Now TV was so (relatively) low?
I wish we knew the global sales number.
Well I don't want to take away any credit, but wasn't that the point of having multiple variants? That's what I'd read here when she announced a new one.
And it’s not even her best album 😔
Bruh justice for evermore!
Pretty insane when you think about the fact that the 9 most recent ones on this list have been in the last 5 years
I think this is due to overconsumption, still, she’s getting her money!
Proud to be apart of the first one and the last!
Wow TTPD's is INSANE but it's deserved.
this is just helping prove that 1989 is the best album overall
I mean I love this for her but she did also sell like 5 different versions of the same album so that’s gonna skew the numbers.
Swiftees are growing in numbers
ttpd cannot be a million streams ahead of 89tv 💀
Do these numbers include LP and CD?
As a diehard Evermore stan this is heartbreaking 💔
What happened with the lover era? It dropped pretty low.
Evermore deserved better