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.
