Showbiz411

The music business is a tough one these days. Ask Taylor Swift. In one week she sold 1.2 million copies of her new album, called “Red.” That was after five weeks in a row of releasing new singles– all of which had to be repurchased again with “Red” on iTunes. For eight days, Swift was on top of the world. But it’sa  all over now, as the Rolling Stones might say.

The number 1 album on iTunes today is “Dreams and Nightmares” from rapper Meek Mills. Oh well. That was fast. Still, no one can take away from Swift’s accomplishment. Her marketing team built up demand and sold everything in the first week. Will “Red” have legs? Generally a second week drop would be around 50%. But since she’s already been displaced, and Hurricane Sandy is certainly playing havoc with anything other than downloads, this should be interesting.

And Swift may have overdone it with the singles. They are also receding very quickly from the top 10. The one of the five that was an actual hit was “We Will Never Ever Get Back Together.” The others are just coming and going. And gosh, it was only last Monday–eight days ago–when Swift had 19 f the top 40 entries on iTunes. That number has been whittled down to 5. Fame is fleeting in this generation of pop!

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.