Holy moley. Taylor Swift, 22, has achieved some kind of modern chart record. She has 19 of the top 40 singles on iTunes right now at 4pm Eastern. She also the number 1 album since midnight, “Red.” All of those 19 songs are from “Red,” which only has 16 tracks. But three of them can be downloaded under different codes, thus the extra hits.
What seems like it’s happening: A lot of people are cherry picking downloadable tracks from “Red” instead of buying the whole album. Five of the tracks were already singles. On the iTunes comments page, many fans are complaining that they don’t want to buy the same songs twice. They don’t have to, of course–they can just get the tracks they want. “We Will Never Ever Get Back Together” already sold over 600,000 downloads, so those people are probably not buying it again.
Ultimately, it’s great for iTunes and the record company, Big Machine/UMG. “Red” is selling on iTunes for $14.99, full price. The individual tracks sell for $1.29. Fans are really having to fork over the bucks for “Red” today either way. They don’t seem to mind.
