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Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets Department' makes gigantic debut on the Billboard albums chart with 2.61 million units

kalindana

kalindana

Member
Oct 28, 2018
3,209
Biggest opening week in 9 years (when Adele's 25 moved over 3 million units in a week); largest streaming week ever; third-largest sales week in the modern era:
As expected, Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department makes a gigantic debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated May 4), securing the superstar her 14th chart-topping album. She ties Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists in the nearly-70-year history of the chart. Only The Beatles, with 19 No. 1s, have more.

The Tortured Poets Department launches with 2.61 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 25, with traditional album sales (purchases of digital download albums, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes) comprising 1.914 million of that sum. Of that sales figure, vinyl sales represent a staggering 859,000. The collected 31 songs on the deluxe edition of the album generated 891.34 million on-demand official streams.
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Those eye-popping figures mark the largest streaming week for an album ever, the second-largest week for an album (by total equivalent album units earned) since the Billboard 200 began measuring by units in December 2014, the third-largest sales week (by traditional album sales) in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991) and the largest sales week for an album on vinyl in the modern era.

With 1.914 million sold, The Tortured Poets Department is instantly the top-selling album of 2024, year-to-date. The second-biggest selling album, counting weekly sales from January through the present, is Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, with 228,000 copies sold in total.
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www.billboard.com

Taylor Swift Makes Historic Debut at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' makes a gigantic debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
www.billboard.com www.billboard.com

The 2.61 million figure easily beats Swift's previous best, which was 1.653 million units for "1989 (Taylor's Version)" in its first week last October. Prior to that, her high-water mark had been "Midnights," which bowed with 1.578 million in late 2022.
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Swift also set a record for the highest streaming numbers ever in one week, with 891.37 million streams registered for the album. That's about 150 million more than the previous record-holder, which was Drake's "Scorpion," which had 745.92 million streams in its debut week back in 2018, according to Luminate.
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Prior to 2014, the Billboard 200 charts were based on pure album sales, but after that point, a new formula began using a mixture of sales and streaming data to come up with album-equivalent figures. Since that changeover a decade ago, six of the 10 top album debut figures have belonged to Swift, with Adele claiming two albums and Drake one in that contemporary top 10.
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Streaming aside, "Poets Department" sold 1.914 million copies in its first week. That is the third-biggest sales figure for any album since SoundScan began collecting accurate sales data for the industry back in 1991. The only two albums that are on record as having sold more complete copies in a single week are Adele's "25" (3.378 million in 2015) and *NSYNC's "No Strings Attached" (2.416 million all the way back in 2000, before streaming existed).

Swift now has three albums on the list of the 10 best weekly sales figures in the modern (post-1991) era, with both versions of "1989" also on that list. (The "Taylor's Version" update of the album last year bowed with 1.359 million copies sold, and the original "1989" came out of the gate with 1.287 million in pure sales in 2014.)
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The new sales records don't stop there. Billboard reports that "Tortured Poets" sold the most vinyl copies in a single week of any album in the modern (post-'91 era). The album is reported to have sold 859,000 double-LP copies on vinyl in its first week. That is significantly more than the previous record-holder, "1989 (Taylor's Version)," which came out of the gate with 693,000 LP copies last fall.
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variety.com

Taylor Swift Debuts With 2.61 Million Units for ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ the Best Number for Any Album in Nine Years

'Tortured Poets Department' moved 2.61 million units its first week, the best number for an album since 2015. It also set streaming and vinyl records.
variety.com variety.com


She also broke multiple Spotify records with her new album:
newsroom.spotify.com

Taylor Swift’s ‘THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT’ Becomes Spotify’s Most-Streamed Album in One Week — Spotify

Records smashed. History made. It’s been just five days since Taylor Swift unveiled her 11th studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, and the reception from Swifties worldwide has been rapturous. On April 22, 2024, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a...
newsroom.spotify.com newsroom.spotify.com
 
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Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,597
Explain that number to me. It's not streams and it's not album sales (thats peak early 2000 Boyband, Brittney numbers) so what is?


Edit: Its a mix but actual album sales are still INSANE for 2024.
 
OP
OP
kalindana

kalindana

Member
Oct 28, 2018
3,209
Soapbox Killer said:
Explain that number to me. It's not streams and it's not album sales (thats peak early 2000 Boyband, Brittney numbers) so what is?
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It combines sales and streams. Billboard explains it in the article:
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
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Just looking at pure album sales, it's the third-largest sales week since electronic tracking started in 1991:
The Tortured Poets Department sold 1.914 million copies in traditional album sales in its first week (purchases of digital downloads, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassette tapes). That marks the third-largest sales week for an album in the modern era — since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991.
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1, Adele, 25, 3.378 million, Dec. 12, 2015
2, *NSYNC, No Strings Attached, 2.416 million, April 8, 2000
3, Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department, 1.914 million, May 4, 2024
4, *NSYNC, Celebrity, 1.88 million, Aug. 11, 2001
5, Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, 1.76 million, June 10, 2000
6, Backstreet Boys, Black & Blue, 1.591 million, Dec. 9, 2000
7, Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor's Version), 1.359 million, Nov. 11, 2023
8, Eminem, The Eminem Show, 1.322 million, June 15, 2002*
9, Britney Spears, Oops! …I Did It Again, 1.319 million, June 3, 2000
10, Taylor Swift, 1989, 1.287 million, Nov. 15, 2014
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krazen

krazen

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Oct 27, 2017
13,376
Gentrified Brooklyn
Soapbox Killer said:
Explain that number to me. It's not streams and it's not album sales (thats peak early 2000 Boyband, Brittney numbers) so what is?


Edit: Its a mix but actual album sales are still INSANE for 2024.
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Physicals as basically release date memorabilia has been a thing for a few years now particularly with vinyl. Think about how all encompassing some fandoms are are the labels realized the cash is there.


But nobody does it quite like Swift, or at least at the same scale. Last year she sold 3.5 million LPs in the United States, thanks in part to five pastel-hued variants of "1989 (Taylor's Version)," a rerecording of her 2014 album, and the popularity of Swift's entire catalog during her record-breaking Eras Tour.


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Issue is that as a formally dead medium there's only X amount of vinyl plants and for genres that live/die by vinyl : underground rock bands, dance music, big artists have been steamrolling them and effectively delaying their releases.
 
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,597
krazen said:
Physicals as basically release date memorabilia has been a thing for a few years now particularly with vinyl. Think about how all encompassing some fandoms are are the labels realized the cash is there.





Issue is that as a formally dead medium there's only X amount of vinyl plants and for genres that live/die by vinyl : underground rock bands, dance music, big artists have been steamrolling them and effectively delaying their releases.
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Vinyl is that big again????
 
Delaney

Delaney

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Oct 25, 2017
3,260
She could have surpassed Adele had she prepared The Anthology physicals for release week, and did something else apart from the Fortnight video.
 
dalq

dalq

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Feb 13, 2018
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User Warned: Drive-By Posting
People really enjoy the white rice and unseasoned chicken breast equivalent of music I guess.
 
Emwitus

Emwitus

The Fallen
Feb 28, 2018
4,570
kalindana said:
It combines sales and streams. Billboard explains it in the article:


Just looking at pure album sales, it's the third-largest sales week since electronic tracking started in 1991:
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Damn I guess I just didn't realize how big nsync was. Two albums in the top 5?! In the span of three years?! Shit!

And Taylor back to back!!!!!!!!!!
 
alr1ght

alr1ght

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Oct 25, 2017
10,126
How many different versions of the album has she released? Seems like it's a good way to skew physical sales numbers.
 
Joshua

Joshua

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Oct 27, 2017
3,810
859,000 copies of the record but you can't buy the full anthology on vinyl, just the multiple variants that include a single extra song.
 
Cipher Peon

Cipher Peon

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
7,911
I thought 2023 was going to be the peak for Taylor Swift. Genuinely uncharted waters, feels like a once in a lifetime event.

Gonna see her in October, can't wait!
 
Night Hunter

Night Hunter

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Dec 5, 2017
2,806
dalq said:
People really enjoy the white rice and unseasoned chicken breast equivalent of music I guess.
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Oozer

Oozer

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Oct 25, 2017
3,866
Since modern record-keeping started in 1991, 24 albums have sold over a million copies in a single week. Taylor has 7 of them. No one else has more than 2. All 7 of Taylor's have come since 2010. In that same time frame, just two other albums have reached the mark. Absurd.
 
StreetsAhead

StreetsAhead

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Sep 16, 2020
5,141
alr1ght said:
How many different versions of the album has she released? Seems like it's a good way to skew physical sales numbers.
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According to billboard:

The Tortured Poets Department's sales were bolstered by its availability across 19 different physical configurations (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs and four cassettes, with four of the physical configurations exclusively sold by Target stores) and two digital download offerings (the standard 16-song album, and a surprise deluxe 31-song edition that was released two hours after the original album bowed).
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Anth0ny

Anth0ny

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Oct 25, 2017
47,497
Leclair said:
I don't know about the other services, but The Weeknd is still the most streamed artist on Spotify as of right now. So he's at least close
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i honestly don't understand that at all. I'm from Toronto and Weeknd is big but he doesn't feel nearly as big as T Swift or even Drake tbh.
 
Porco Rosso

Porco Rosso

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,235
Canada
I actively dislike this album and think Taylor is bad for both the environment and the vinyl industry (taking up valuable pressing plant space for 1000 variants) but it is honestly very nice to see physical sales so high. I realize that's a bit of a contradictory statement, but I just love physical media and love to see it succeed.
 
Xeonidus

Xeonidus

“Fuck them kids.”
Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,344
My wife got the vinyl as soon as she could. Waiting for it to be delivered. We don't even have a record player yet lol. Need to really look into getting one lol
 

Flueswonkler

Member
Mar 15, 2022
217
JB Hunkamunka said:
"2.6 million album sales in a week. How cute!"
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Such a fun album. It's been neglected for years so I hope it gets some representation on the upcoming tour.

For those unaware, Hikaru Utada (yes, that Hikaru Utada, of Kingdom Hearts fame for those outside of Japan) held the record for fastest selling album until Adele came out with 25. Hikki's 2nd album, Distance, sold just over 3 million in the first week
 
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