The poets are not so tortured.
Hitsdailydouble.com reports that Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” will finish its first week with record sales.
“Poets” is on track for 1.8 million albums and downloads including CDs and LPs. Another 600,000 is coming from streaming.
If you count “Poets” at 2.4 million, it will be third behind all time record holder Adele’s 25 album, and NSync’s “No Strings Attached.”
This Swiftian victory is achieved through offering multiple versions of the album in different configurations and colors, all “collectible” for her fans. There are also two different actual albums — the that was announced with 16, and an “Anthology” with 31 tracks.
Swift is definitely at the top of her popularity even though no one really knows what it means. She is certainly prolific, and a great marketer. But is she turning into the musical equivalent of late artist Thomas Kinkade or even “big eyes” painter Margaret Keane? That remains the question.
“Poets” has a lock on the pop charts until May 17th when Billie Eilish’s new album is released. There will be a couple of other releases between now and then, but it’s unlikely Swift can be dethroned.
Apart from “Poets,” by the way, Swift has sold the equivalent of 4.7 million albums just this year. About a million are hard sales, the rest from streaming.
