Swift’s new album is No. 1, but sales are down
For almost a decade now, Taylor Swift has defined the contemporary blockbuster music release, with four albums — from Speak Nowin 2010 to Reputation in 2017 — that each opened with more than one million sales.
With her latest, Lover, charming critics and fans alike, there was no question that Swift would arrive head and shoulders above all else. But with the music world now almost entirely reshaped by streaming, the industry at large has been watching Swift’s sales closely. Could she still sell one million records? The answer, it turned out, was no. But even so, Lover still set a new bar for success in a rapidly changing market.
Lover opened at No. 1 on Billboard album chart with the equivalent of 867,000 sales in the United States in its opening week, according to Nielsen, a figure that incorporates both sales and streaming information. That may have been far from the 1,216,000 opening for Reputation, but it was also the largest number since. Its streaming total — 225 million — was also modest for such a release. In a vastly diminished market of sales for CDs and downloads, Swift was still able to move a remarkable number of albums. Nielsen credits 679,000 sales of Lover as a complete album, a nearly impossible sum these days — all 199 other titles on the Billboard 200 this week sold only 361,000 copies combined.Also on the album chart this week, Young Thug’s So Much Fun fell to No. 2, Brockhampton’s new Ginger opened at No. 3, Jeezy’s TM104: The Legend of the Snowman started at No. 4, and Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You is No. 5.