Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” Aiming for No. 1

Taylor Swift “Reputation” Aiming for No. 1

Back in August, Taylor Swift cleared her social media accounts and posted a cryptic clip of a snake. We found out towards the end of the week it was a publicity stunt to announce her new album, Reputation. Along with the announcement of her 6th album came the single “Look What You Made Me Do”. Letting the world know that the old Taylor was dead.

“Look What You Made Me Do” – Taylor’s first solo release in over three years broke 24-hour records for streaming sites, Spotify, VEVO, and YouTube. Notably ending a 16-week reign of Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi’s smash record, “Despacito” atop of Billboards Hot 100 with 2017’s highest single week sales.

However, everything hasn’t been exactly peachy for Swift. One week after reaching the top spot on the Pop Songs chart, the song dropped down to number 7. This is the largest fall from the top a song has seen in the chart’s history. “Look” also fell from number 5 to 20 on the all-format Radio Songs chart. Again, another record drop claiming the charts biggest drop in its 27-year history. Taylor’s other releases haven’t fared well either. “Ready for it” fell to number 53 after debuting at number 4 on the Hot 100. “Gorgeous” dropped from number 13 to number 69 in its second week.

Taylor vs Radio

With Swift’s radio presence diminishing – what does that mean for her album sales? Well, it’s fair to say with “Reputation’s” pre-order numbers reaching more than 400,000 units, not much. There isn’t much question as to whether Swift’s album will sell as well as her previously three. Most noteworthy each scanning over 1 million in their first weeks. Morphing from a country singer to a pop star, she is just one of seven artists with at least eight Pop Songs number 1s.

Big Machine Records (Taylor’s label) are expecting to sell an incredibly humble, 2 million copies in its first week. Reaching into their bag of tricks to increase their sales pump, Taylor Swift’s camp has arranged for marketing deals with UPS and Target. Shifting focus to rely less on the radio and more on marketing seems to be proving that perhaps an artist doesn’t need as much radio time to succeed these days. I think it’s safe to say, after the dust clears and the numbers are in, Taylor will sit where she usually does – on top of the charts.