Taylor Swift makes history with six million album sales in eight weeks
Taylor Swift has broken a new record by selling six million album equivalent units in eight weeks.
The pop star’s tenth studio album ‘Midnights‘ was released in October and quickly soared to Number One in the UK and US.
Now, Swift has broken a new record after moving six million album equivalent units worldwide in two months, which included three million in the US alone.
It also makes her the only artist ever to have five albums that sold over one million units during release week, with ‘Midnights’ totalling almost 1.6million in its debut week – the first record to sell over one million physical albums since 2015.
Lucian Grainge, Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO, said of the achievement: “Taylor is a multidimensional creative force whose achievements place her among the most accomplished artists in the history of music, and we are thrilled and honored to partner with her across so many aspects of her career.”
Republic Records Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Monte Lipman, added: “Taylor’s achievements over the past year have been absolutely spectacular! With more than two dozen historic milestones set by Midnights, it’s nearly unimaginable for any artist to sell more than six million albums in less than eight weeks during any era of our business. These accomplishments further exemplify Taylor’s prowess as the consummate artist and storyteller defining a generation.”
‘Midnights’ – described by Swift as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life” – was praised by NME in a four-star review as a “shimmering return to pure pop” that saw that pop titan “offering up brighter, future-facing sounds”.
In November, the singer announced ‘The Eras Tour’, 52 stadium shows throughout the US which will feature a host of special guests including Paramore, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, MUNA, Haim, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn.
However, the tour has been plagued by controversy after the first round of sales saw thousands of fans reporting lengthy wait times, website outages and hyper-inflated prices on resale site.
The ticketing company later admitted it buckled under the “historically unprecedented demand” they faced from Swift’s fans before cancelling the general sale.
In a statement of her own, Swift refused to “make excuses” for Ticketmaster, claiming that she and her team “asked them, multiple times, if they could hand this kind of demand” and were “assured they could”.
Earlier this month, Ticketmaster announced it would sell more ‘Eras’ tour tickets through its Verified Fan program.
The post Taylor Swift makes history with six million album sales in eight weeks appeared first on NME.
Hollie Geraghty
NME
