Taylor Swift's ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ debuts with 4.002M on BB200

[StrawberryBlond 14,945]

All of this for an album that even a lot of her fans don't like and has no cultural impact outside her stan universe. Adele's record was so much more meaningful as almost all of those copies were a one-copy-per-person idea. And it was put out before vinyl collecting and variants were a thing. Yes, she didn't allow streaming of that album initially which helped but in terms of unique listeners and pure album sales, she really did something major. But this? This is maybe just over 1 million fans buying the album a few times each, along with streaming the hell out of it. There needs to be rules introduced to stop multiple copies counting towards charts if they're from the same transaction and stop every track charting. This s**t's been out of hand for the last few years now and when it happens with Taylor albums its 10x worse as they'll repeatedly continue to chart for months on end and not allow room for anyone else to break through.

[ActualPatient 1,858]

14 hours ago, tlittlemonster said:

The real question is how many people are actually buying music.

It's very different to have 3M people buy one physical album variant vs 100K people buying 30 variants.

My other issue is unfortunately all this activity is only benefiting one artist. No artist gets close to this and it's not because of their lack of talent or the quality of their music.

I very much agree with the caution and skepticism!

My takeaway is that Taylor's team is a marketing genius. if she can get away with this much, even without being the greatest vocalist of the generation, maybe others could do the same.

i mean artists like Charli XCX who have been around for some time has reached new commercial peaks relative to their history. Gaga has new peaks in other places, but she doesn't seem to focus that much on physical sales.

[Teletubby 152,158]

21 hours ago, Lucas said:

As far as I know, the album already has 30 variants, and TTPD was at 40+. I can't name any other artist who has as many.

• Cardi B's Am I the Drama? - 33 variants
5 digital albums
9 CD
8 boxsets
11 vinyl

Spoiler

• Halsey's The Great Impersonator - 34 variants
6 CD variants
8 vinyl variants
8 digital albums 
12 boxsets

Spoiler

• Jonas Brothers had over 50 cd variants 
 

Spoiler

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Teletubby

[SEANGT 5,429]

5 more #1 albums to beat the beatles record. lol. What records are even left for her. Insanity

[HBDYWM Stan 758]

10 hours ago, Teletubby said:

• Cardi B's Am I the Drama? - 33 variants
5 digital albums
9 CD
8 boxsets
11 vinyl

  Reveal hidden contents

• Halsey's The Great Impersonator - 34 variants
6 CD variants
8 vinyl variants
8 digital albums 
12 boxsets

  Reveal hidden contents

• Jonas Brothers had over 50 cd variants 
 

  Hide contents

 

You have to be insane to think that someone is buying a CD (made individualized by state so each state can buy their version) is going to buy 50. No Jonas fans are doing that. Swifties ARE buying 20-30 of hers. I don't agree with variants for anyone really, but let's use 2% logic. 

[4th Time Around 4,582]

Amazing numbers for a shitty album.

[HBDYWM Stan 758]

Via HDD, midweek estimates are at 345k for week 2 (110k Physical ). A 91% drop from debut week.

[Debithius 5,887]

Adele had one variant, Taylor needed 28. This is not impressive.

[Teletubby 152,158]

51 minutes ago, HBDYWM Stan said:

Via HDD, midweek estimates are at 345k for week 2 (110k Physical ). A 91% drop from debut week.

it's still one of the biggest week this year. many physical and digital copies were limited and are no longer available.

[elsamars 3,325]

22 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

But brat was good 

This 

+ 
There’s a difference between putting up limited time variants before album release just to boost up first week sales and releasing variants after your album had a big cultural impact