In today’s economic climate, where album sales are down 14.4 percent in 2014, according to digitalmusicnews.com, selling more than one million records in the first week of a release is unheard of.
Unless, of course, you are Taylor Swift.
The first week of sales for Swift’s first-ever documented pop album, “1989,” was the best since Eminem’s in 2002, with 1.287 million copies sold.
Philip Bergeron / Graphic Design Editor
According to data from Nielsen Soundscan, which measures music sales, Swift is the first artist to have three million selling weeks with an album.
Swift chose to embrace pop music and to “shake-off” country music in her new album “1989.”
Swift has sold millions of records, but the songs and marketing behind “1989” have been meticulously thought over in preparation for the release.
“She has convinced consumers to want to buy an album. They want the full and complete Taylor Swift experience and that experience includes buying the album,” Keith Caulfield, Billboard’s associate editor of charts/sales, said.
Thanks to a deal with Target, physical copies of “1989” accounted for a large percentage of sales.
According to Billboard magazine, in the first two days of sales 450,000 units were sold on iTunes, 247,000 units at Target and about 30,000 at Walmart.
In the deluxe version of the album, only available as a physical CD at Target stores, are three bonus tracks and three iPhone voice recordings of Swift conceptualizing the future songs of the album.
One packet of thirteen polaroids was also placed in the deluxe editions of each album. There were five separate packets of these polaroids, enticing die-hard fans to buy multiple copies of the album in hopes to collect all five sets.
“I love ‘1989.’ At first I was shocked by how different it sounded. But as I kept listening to the songs I realized that it was the same Taylor, just presented in a different way. It’s brilliant. Yet again, Taylor will be the soundtrack of my year,” KSC Junior Sam Provencher said.
“I also have to admit, I bought the album twice! Once on iTunes and once at Target,” Provencher continued.
In efforts to energize people to download “1989” from iTunes, Swift excitedly released her album one hour early. It worked. Fans ran to iTunes to get their first listen of the thirteen tracks of “1989,” and then rushed to their local Targets in the morning to pick up their deluxe edition sets to hear the three bonus tracks, voice recordings and to get their hands on the polaroids.
Recently, Swift did not publish “1989” on Spotify, a popular service that streams music for a monthly fee, and also removed her entire catalogue from the service. Swift spoke in an interview with Time Magazine on why she took her music off of Spotify.
“I’m always up for trying something. And I tried it and I didn’t like the way it felt. I think there should be an inherent value placed on art,” Swift said, regarding the Spotify controversy in a Time Magazine article titled “Taylor Swift on 1989, Spotify, Her Next Tour and Female Role Models.”
Swift is trying to prove to the industry that, despite a market plagued by illegal downloads and steadily falling album sales, selling a record is still possible.
In the interview, she said she didn’t like the way it felt giving away her music for free. Swift said she was surprised by the album sales after it was pulled from Spotify.
“I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify. Everybody’s complaining about how music sales are shrinking, but nobody’s changing the way they’re doing things. They keep running towards streaming, which is, for the most part, what has been shrinking the numbers of paid album sales,” Swift continued.Swift, and all artists trying to make a profit from their music, are fighting an uphill battle with streaming services who offer very little compensation, and with the ease and availability of illegal downloads.
“People hardly pay for music anymore,” KSC junior Remi Chiovaro said, “I know so many people who steal all of their music.”
Chiovaro continued, “It’s just how the music industry is these days.” Junior Cassidy Cetti agreed with Chiovaro.
“In a time where everyone is illegally downloading everything from music, to movies, to episodes of shows,” Cetti said, “It was a really big move for [Taylor Swift] to take all of her music off [Spotify].”
However, Cetti believes that Swift is making an intelligent decision by doing so.
“I mean, people want their music — especially hers,” Cetti said, “If they’re not going to get it on a free website like Spotify, they’re going to get it somewhere.”
Cetti continued, “Which is why everyone is buying it. It’s a smart move. She’s really successful, especially with this new album.”
Cetti, who said she is not an avid Swift fan, joked, “I even bought it.”
Roger Weeks can be contacted at rweeks@keene-equinox.com.