'TTPD': Taylor Swift's latest album breaks Spotify, vinyl records
Taylor Swift's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, has been breaking records left, right, and center. It has now set a new record by becoming the first album to achieve 1B Spotify streams within a week! The streaming giant confirmed that the album had already broken the record for "most-streamed album in a single week" with two days still left. Additionally, it also set a new high for most streams in a single day on Spotify.
Swift's album has set new sales records
The Tortured Poets Department, released on April 19, has already sold 1.5M copies, including 7,00,000 vinyl copies. This achievement only reportedly took her three days. In 2023, a million vinyl records were sold in the US, with Swift's share being 10%, reported NPR. The "double album" features a total of 31 tracks and follows her previous record-breaking album Midnights, which was estimated to have earned over $230M for Universal, her record label, in 2022.
'TTPD' has also set additional streaming records
In addition to its Spotify triumphs, TTPD has also broken several other records. It accumulated 300M streams on Spotify in a single day and is projected to surpass 2M in album-equivalent units on the official charts. This would make it the highest since Adele's album 25 (2015). Swift's collaboration with Post Malone on Fortnight became the most streamed song in a single day in Spotify history, making her the most streamed artist in a single day.
Meanwhile, 'TTPD' has received mixed reviews
Despite the album's staggering commercial reception, the critical reception has not been very warm. While Alexis Petridis from The Guardian praised the artist's "exceptionally talented" writing in his four-star review, Paste Magazine criticized the album for what they perceived as "a striking level of moral nothingness," describing it as a "hollow" album. The album has also divided listeners, who have been sharing their reviews on X and Instagram.
Future: Swift is now focused on her 'The Eras Tour'
Looking ahead, Swift plans to spend the rest of 2024 touring with her The Eras concert, which includes stops in England and Canada. This tour has already set a new record by becoming the first to generate over $1B in revenue. Earlier this month, Forbes announced that Swift had joined the billionaire club. She is also set to make her debut as a feature-length filmmaker with an upcoming, yet-to-be-titled film with Searchlight.
This is how Swift perceives the album
While releasing the album, Swift shared on social media, "An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions, and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in one time, one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author's life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up." "Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it." "And then all that's left behind is the tortured poetry."
