Thursday, March 28, 2024

Taylor Swift Album Sales Won’t Match Previous Four Releases, “Lover” Will Sell Far Less than 1 Million Copies for First Week

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I told you last week this was happening:

Taylor Swift’s new “Lover” album will debut with significantly lower numbers than her four previous albums.

“Lover” sold 230,000 copies on Friday and Saturday per Buzz Angle Music. Of that number 175,000 represented paid downloads and CD sales. The rest was from streaming.

Swift is not a big streaming act, and the results are going to be lower  sales overall. Hitsdailydouble and Republic Records have scaled back expectations for first week US sales to around 750K. That’s not a small number, but a 25% drop for Swift if it bears out.

What’s going on? Swift’s record buying population is aging out now, sorry. She had a great run, but her teen girls are now in college or older. Plus, the new music doesn’t sound a lot different than the old music. There’s nothing innovative going on at this point. Does Swift even have a manager or anyone she listens to? It’s unclear.

Her performance on tonight’s MTV VMAs may drum up more business. But frankly, Swift’s appearance on “Good Morning America” on Friday should have sold more units. On Wednesday we’ll be able to see what the trend was for “Lover.”

Swift isn’t alone in having to face generational changes. Beyonce already saw that this summer with her “Lion King: The Gift” album. Adele may be next to feel the heat. Cultivating and keeping a record-buying audience can’t be taken for granted.

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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