BMLG/Mert & MarcusHer last three albums each sold over a million copies each in their debut weeks, so it’s no surprise that Taylor Swift‘s record label expects a lot from her new album, Reputation. But how many copies will Reputation actually sell in its first week? Depends on who you ask.
A source tells Variety that Reputation will sell between 1.3 and 1.5 million units, a bit more than her 2014 album, 1989. But as Billboard reports, Taylor’s record label believes two million copies is possible. Billboard news director Hannah Karp thinks that’s optimistic, but notes that Taylor’s team is very creative, sales-wise.
“She’s been using an array of marketing tactics that seem to be working really well so far,” Karp tells ABC Radio. Those include a promotion giving fans access to better tickets for Taylor’s upcoming tour if they pre-ordered Reputation.
“That’s resulted in more than 400,000 album sales already,” she says.
Taylor’s also teamed with Target. Karp says the retail chain is “giving her more display space in its stores than they’ve ever given an artist before, in exchange for getting two custom versions of the album.”
Also, the album is being kept off streaming services for at least a week, forcing fans to buy the physical version. Adele used a similar strategy for her album 25, and scored first-week sales of more than three million copies.
“It…makes more financial sense to try to sell the albums, rather than trying to make all the money from streaming,” says Karp of skipping streaming for awhile.
That’s because, she explains, it takes “many, many streams to get to the [sales] equivalent of a physical album.”
Either way, Reputation will surely debut at #1, especially following Taylor’s Saturday Night Live performance this weekend.
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