NYT: Taylor Swift's 'Folklore' Is No. 1 With a Blockbuster Debut Week

[Frank Forman]

Never heard her. HONK if you think I am missing something.

NYT: Taylor Swift's 'Folklore' Is No. 1 With a Blockbuster Debut Week
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/arts/music/taylor-swift-folklore-billboard-chart.html

By Ben Sisario

A new Taylor Swift album usually arrives with a monthslong marketing
rollout: radio singles, corporate tie-ins, a string of media
appearances--all carefully choreographed to send her to No. 1.

For her latest release, "Folklore," Swift threw out almost her
entire playbook, yet still rocketed to the top with sales that most
artists can only dream of.

"Folklore," which came out on July 24 with less than 24 hours'
notice, opened at No. 1 on Billboard's latest album chart with a
whopping 846,000 sales in the United States, according to Nielsen
Music. That's the third-highest weekly total for any album in four
years, beaten only by Swift's last two albums: "Reputation" (1.2
million in 2017) and "Lover" (867,000 a year ago).

By comparison, Drake's "Scorpion," a monster streaming hit, opened
with the equivalent of 732,000 sales in 2018, while Kendrick Lamar's
"DAMN." notched 603,000 the year before that.

Selling more than one million copies in a single week--once a
Swift specialty--may no longer be possible in the streaming era,
but through canny marketing Swift has kept her numbers as high as
almost anyone can. (One exception: Adele, who had stratospheric
numbers the last time around, and has a new album in the works.)

"Folklore" may also be one of the last blockbuster releases to take
full advantage of one of Nielsen and Billboard's most contested
rules, over the so-called bundling of albums--selling a copy of an
album along with another item, like merchandise or a concert ticket.
Billboard is set to stop counting most of these deals in October.

When her album was announced, Swift's website was fully primed to
deliver her album in an array of deals for items like a $49 cardigan
and a $15 phone stand. In addition, Swift sold 17 physical versions
of "Folklore"--eight CDs, eight LPs and a cassette tape--that
surely lured large numbers of collectors and fans. Swift's 846,000
sales total is a composite number that includes 615,000 copies sold
as a full album.

Yet Swift's surprise release strategy brought its own momentum, and
in the days after its release it was a legitimate sensation online
--as well as a critics' favorite, for the most part--that drew
290 million streams. The "Folklore" single "Cardigan" also debuted
at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Swift did manage to avoid one piece of potential competition in her
opening week. Kanye West, her eternal celebrity nemesis, had
announced a new album, "Donda: With Child," for the same day, but so
far it has not materialized.

Also this week, Logic's "No Pressure" opened at No. 2 with the
equivalent of 221,000 sales. Juice WRLD's "Legends Never Die" falls
to No. 3 after two weeks at the top, and another posthumous rap
album, Pop Smoke's "Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon," is No. 4.
The "Hamilton" Broadway cast album is No. 5.

[Frank Berger]

She's a talented song writer, a mediocre singer, her moves
on stage are studied because she doesn't move well. Her
singing is only tolerable to me because she's singing her
own songs. She is tall and beautiful. She's the #1 top pop
earner as of 2019. Her net worth is in excess of $300
million, which is amazing for someone so young. She's not
married, in case you are interested. She morphed from
country in her teens to pop. Her songs are pretty much all
about her and her love life. That could be tiring for some.
I have all her albums, including the new one, which I
haven't listened to. She's smart. She's heavily involved
in her productons, her marketing, and businesses. She also
seems like a nice person. Do I sound like I have a crush?
Not really. I do admire her, though.