The record business now consists entirely of Taylor Swift.
In this week’s top 50, Swift sold over 450,000 albums. That includes 125,000 for the number 1 album, “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”
She placed 5 albums in the top 20 alone.
Last week’s number 1 album, a chart debut, was Nicki Minaj. She fell to number 2 this week, and behind Taylor by 30,000.
The numbers here are from hits daily double.com and include streaming. “1989” sold nearly 85,000 actual paid downloads or CD or LPs. So that was most of the sale. The rest was streaming.
The whole thing is mind boggling. In 2023, we’ve had few releases by anyone other than Taylor Swift. This is the least productive music generation since rock and roll began. Adele, Rihanna, Beyonce make albums every six years. Rock bands do little. Is it laziness? Or no one has anything to say? Beats me. Or is it just that there’s no money to be made — thanks to streaming — so the artists have just given up. It’s sad.
