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As much as Taylor Swift can be annoying, one thing she’s right about is how absurd it is that music artists don’t typically own their master recordings. So I support her re-recording her back catalogue. She’s been operating at a breakneck speed since 2020, releasing Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights, along with three re-records of earlier work. This is obviously a strategy to devalue the masters that currently belong to Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun. Her most recent re-release, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), hasn’t gotten as much buzz as Red (Taylor’s Version) or Fearless (Taylor’s Version). At least it hasn’t felt that way to me and I would consider myself adjacent to, if not a part of, the Swiftiverse. But people are still buying it, and now Taylor is setting another industry record. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled–whatever she may pretend to the contrary, she cares deeply about awards, sales numbers, and industry recognition. She’s now the first woman to have four albums on the Billboard Top 10 at the same time, and one of only three artists to do it, period. The other two are Herb Alpert (of all people!) and Prince. She also has the most Number One albums in history for any woman, besting Barbra Streisand.
Taylor Swift is setting some high chart benchmarks with the release of her “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” album, becoming the first woman to have four albums on Billboard’ Top 10 list at once.
Her latest release debuted at No. 1 with the biggest numbers of the year so far for any release. According to Billboard, that’s the first time a woman has done that in the entire six-decade history of there being an album chart — and she’s one of only three artists to ever accomplish the feat.
Swift also set a record for the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in history: She now has a dozen, moving ahead of Barbra Streisand, with whom she was formerly tied with 11 each.
“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” bowed on top of the Billboard 200 with 716,000 album-equivalent units. That number ensured that it wasn’t even a photo finish in this year’s opening-week derby, as the previous best figure was held by Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which debuted in March with 501,000.
The other three albums Swift has in her triumphant quadrilogy in the top 10 are 2022’s “Midnights” at No. 5, 2019’s “Lover” at No. 7 and 2020’s “Folklore” at No. 10.
In the current music ecosystem, Taylor is one of a vanishingly small number of artists who still sells a lot of records (along with Morgan Wallen apparently, a person whose name alone triggers my gag reflex, to say nothing of his music). It’s impressive that Lover is still charting so high after four years. I wonder, though, if the numbers for Speak Now (TV) are somewhat inflated by concert tickets and a shadowy little gambit I’ve caught onto in recent years. I sound like a tinfoil hat person, but go with me on this: when I went to see Lana Del Rey at the Hollywood Bowl in 2019, I apparently opted into getting a CD of her album Norman F–king Rockwell mailed to my house as part of the ticket price. The album had just been released that summer. I do not remember opting into this at all but it arrived anyway! Thank you, Ticketmaster! That album is a masterpiece so I’m happy I was hoodwinked into getting a physical copy. But then, a similar thing happened when Harry Styles’ second solo album came out. I bought tickets to his tour but that time I remember opting in to getting a CD of Fine Line added to the ticket price and it was mailed to me sometime later. I think those concert ticket add-on albums get counted as album sales–why wouldn’t they? My point is, given how massive Taylor’s Eras tour is, and just how many stadiums she’s selling out all over the world, it would not surprise me at all if there is a covert or overt Speak Now (TV) CD add-on with her concert tickets. If anyone reading this was lucky enough to survive “several bear attacks” via Ticketmaster to get Eras tour tickets, please let me know if I’m onto something. But even without my concert-ticket conspiracy theory, Taylor has an extremely dedicated fan base who will happily buy an album where most of the songs on it are ones we’ve been listening to for 13 years and sound nearly identical to the originals.
Kpop artists also sell enormous amounts of albums globally and a big reason for that is that this is the best way (next to concert tickets) that fans can actively show their support to them.
Streaming pays peanuts. Lots of that money gets into the hand of a few streaming platforms instead of the artists.
This is why there are so many Kpop groups that are active and can thrive: because fans actively use their money to support.
Other fandoms that show a lot of support for their faves that way are indeed Taylor Swift fans and Nicki Minaj fans.
As a Swiftie I can assure you that there are no albums being sold with her concert tickets. Her fans (me included) buy her albums separately because we want to make a point to the music industry the importance of owning one’s work. We value her music and I feel many of us buy to make a point rather than simply streaming. Red is my fav album but surprisingly the Speak Now re-records have sold even better than Red.
Her face reminds me of someone . . . someone . . . someone. . .
OH, FLO, the Progressive Insurance lady.
I survived the Great War and took my daughter and a friend to the Eras Tour last weekend. We did not get a CD.
But I was very very impressed with the level of showmanship and the performance that Taylor gave for 3.5 hours.
Unless I’m mistaken Scooter Braun sold her Master’s a few years ago. I remember wondering at the time of she was going to try to purchase them from the new owners or keep rerecording. And yes I wish more artists were in a position to own their masters when they sign the contracts but they aren’t and it always seems to bite them down the line. Very predatory system.
ETA : nope I was right
https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2020/music/news/scooter-braun-sells-taylor-swift-big-machine-masters-1234832080/amp/
As far as I know, she was trying to buy them and instead they were sold to someone else. She was extremely upset, rightfully so imo.
Herb Alpert! God I miss My Dad Wrote a Porno.
Taylor’s numbers are surely inflated by her having 3+ “special editions” of every album so fans have to end up buying multiples to get all the damn songs. It’s a scam.
If her fans choose to do it it’s not a scam. It’s not like they couldn’t get her music free if they wanted to. I dislike her immensely and don’t get her appeal. Her music is incredibly vanilla to me. But, she definitely works hard and is obviously on top of her game business-wise.
Nope. It’s sketchy. I have a Twitter account to follow figure skating and I’ve ended up with lots of Swifties in my feed. It’s heartbreaking reading about how they spend money they don’t have in this stuff. Also their laments at being unable to afford the things they see “everyone” else buying on their feed.
So, yes, the fans want it, but Taylor makes a lot of money draining young women’s wallets. Expensive cardigans for each of the albums! And they long to own all of them.
Maybe because she keeps re-releasing the same material idk 🤷♀️
I’m so grossesd out by the ugly ass bros who hate successful women. Wtf is taylor, the most successful women ever even dealing with these asshats
I adore Taylor. I loathe the mysoginy she has to put up with.
What was described as far as tying albums to ticket sales was common until Billboard changed the rules a couple of years ago for charting, but Taylor has never utilized that practice. There were some merch bundles when that was a thing for awhile, but that was a few years ago and it represented a small percentage of her sales.
Another big achievement is that Taylor is now the woman with the most #1 albums for a woman in the US with 12. She’s tied with Drake now and only Jay Z and the Beatles have more.
My partner and I have tickets for one of her UK dates and there was nothing album-related as far as I can tell. I don’t own any physical versions but I think she is being clever/somewhat novel with her marketing, especially for the re-recordings and Midnights. Having lots of new ‘From the Vault’ songs per album release, and having 4 (!!) different covers for her vinyl copy of midnights that together make a giant wall clock would have helped massively to get people to buy more than one copy of her albums.
No, we did not get the Speak Now album at the show.
I got tickets at the beginning of the tour before Speak now (TV) was announced, so no ticket option.
Think what you will, but for me, it comes down to a saying on this pillow that I want to get. “In this house, we listen to Taylor’s Version.” I have all her albums except for her debut album, but as soon as the TV editions come out, that is what I listen to. I support her wanting to own her own music.
Now, did I buy all eleventy versions of Midnights? No. But I did wait to get the 3 am version – I have learned not to pre-order because she comes out with new versions and it’s worth waiting till the day of, personally. But I buy a digital version so I have it to play anywhere, and a CD for the car so my kids can listen if my phone is tied up. “My kids” lol. 🙂
Echoing everyone else- there wasn’t an album option with Eras tour tickets.
Every time she breaks a record, people break their backs trying to reach the point that there must be something shady going on. I think the Eras tour (and the continual record breaking) shows that she has a massive fan base, who love and support her. Does she release a bunch of different versions? Yes. Does it matter? Not really. As with any fan base, fans will buy what they want, if that’s multiple versions of the same album, so be it, they get to make that decision for themselves. I remember ordering the European version of the debut BSB album because it had a different song on it, even though I already had the American version. Taylor didn’t invent the practice.
Personally, I’ve been buying the vinyls as they’re released, but not multiples because it doesn’t matter that much to me (only one I’m pissed about is the 3am version). The concern trolling about whether the fans can (or should) buy multiple versions is so tired. It’s not anyone’s business how they spend their money, and newsflash, her fans aren’t all 15 anymore. She’s never said “buy x copies,” people have agency in their own buying decisions.
Taylor isn’t annoying. She’s problematic.
A very very big difference.
See: Matt Healy. How can all her fans just ignore this shitshow? I guess she got tired of pretending to be an ally and y’all are fine with it. She’s not responsible for his actions but she is responsible for doubling down and affirming him after the fact.
I just got back from the Eras tour stop in Denver! And no we didn’t get an album with our ticket. I will say, whatever one says of TS, that woman works HARD. Nearly four hours onstage, no more than 90 seconds offstage between sets, TOPS. When did she get water? Did she get to use the restroom? Is she human?! (Never missed a note or a lyric either).