Taylor Swift’s seventh album Lover dropped on August 23rd, and once again the talented singer-songwriter emerged as not only one of the biggest names in pop music today, but also as one of the savviest businesswomen in the industry. The day of the album’s release, fans all over the world were lining up outside brick and mortar Target stores to pick up not one copy, but four deluxe editions of her album – all to have access to each edition’s handwritten journal entries that provide a behind-the-scenes look at her songwriting process over the years. She commands the kind of brand loyalty that companies today only dream of. As a result, she’s achieved remarkable sales for each of her albums, finding the kind of success that’s truly an anomaly in today’s world of streaming services and online downloads.
As the New York Times reported, for almost a decade now, Taylor Swift has defined the contemporary blockbuster music release, with four albums — from “Speak Now” in 2010 to “Reputation” in 2017 — that each opened with more than a million sales. With her latest, “Lover,” charming critics and fans alike, there was no question that Swift would arrive head and shoulders above all else. But with the music world now almost entirely reshaped by streaming, the industry at large has been watching Swift’s sales closely. Could she still sell a million records? The answer, it turned out, was no. But even so, “Lover” still set a new bar for success in a rapidly changing market.
As usual, Swift was the industry’s most brazen and strategic self-marketer. For months, she gave away downloads of the album with sales of merchandise on her website. She lined up corporate partnerships with Capital One and Amazon. She sold four collector’s editions of the album at Target stores, and tweeted pictures of her fans proudly snapping up all of them. Tactics like those helped Swift sell 375,000 CDs at a time when young listeners have nearly abandoned the format. According to MusicWatch, a market research firm, just 15 percent of 13-to-24-year-olds listen to CDs, down from 39 percent two years ago.
Over the years, Taylor Swift’s influence has only grown. In 2018, she was even named the most influential person on Twitter, despite only tweeting 13 times. Whether it’s pulling her music from Spotify, negotiating fairer royalties with Apple Music, or signing a reportedly $200 million contract with Universal, Swift has been strategic in building her empire.
