Taylor Swift’s “Life of a Showgirl” run is pretty much over.
Having sold over 4 million copies in its first week, “Showgirl” will likely top out at 5 million when all is said and done.
It’s been a great run but this past week “Showgirl” sold just 109,000 copies, mostly of all it from streaming. Just 17,000 were paid downloads, CDs, or LPs.
“Showgirl” had one big hit, “The Life of Ophelia,” and one minor one called “Opalite.” Because Swift prevented downloading of individual tracks from iTunes for the first two weeks, all sales went to the total album.
But it’s all over now. Total Taylor sales including streaming for this year are 4.9 million. Of that only 1 million was anything other than “Showgirl.”
She’s literally exhausted the audience for number of copies that could be sold. And it’s likely her total is actually half, with many customers buying two versions of the album.
Swift has swallowed the record business whole, devoured it really.
The irony is, Morgan Wallen has outsold Swift this year — 7.8 million including streaming. His album, “I’m the Problem,” registered 4.5 million.
Of course, no one wants to give credit to Wallen for anything. He was “cancelled” long ago and didn’t get any Grammy nominations this year (Swift is eligible next year).
Elsewhere on the iTunes album top 50 album, there’s Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” Mariah Carey’s Christmas album, and Elton John’s “Diamonds” box set. The latter is the real winner, since it’s a box set and it never stops selling. God bless.
Coming November 21st: the Beatles’ Anthology set, remastered with a new 4th chapter. The sound is amazing, it’s worth buying again if you got it 30 years ago. Nothing “new” as in undiscovered, but terrific unheard versions of old songs.
