Beth GarrabrantFollowing the news that Taylor Swift‘s new album, folklore, had sold 1.3 million units globally in less than 24 hours, the surprise release is now on track to have the biggest sales week of the year.
As Billboard notes, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, the release has sold more than 500,000 units in its first three days of availability, which means it’s already passed the album that currently holds the record for the biggest week of 2020: late rapper Juice WRLD‘s Legends Never Die. That album sold 497,000 units in its first week earlier this month.
The last album to sell more than 500,000 units in a single week was — you guessed it — Taylor’s previous album, Lover, which came out in August of 2019.
Meanwhile, Taylor has thanked fans with a handwritten note and a new piece of merch. On her socials, she wrote, “Thank you for all the love that you’ve shown folklore. It’s been the most magical creative adventure of my life thus far, and I wanted to share with you a recording of how it all started.”
In her merch store, you can now buy a special version of the “Cardigan” single, which includes, Taylor says, “the first recording I ever sent to Aaron [Dessner] for ‘Cardigan’…including the original lyric and lots of rambling.”
Aaron Dessner of The National was Taylor’s main collaborator on folklore. The single features the original voice memo Taylor sent to Dessner after he sent her instrumental tracks for what would ultimately become “Cardigan.” In the memo, she describes her writing process and sings a cappella over the track.
The limited edition “cardigan” single collection is available now, which has the original voice memo I sent Aaron for the song on April 27, 2020 (alternate lyrics included.) The song + voice memo are available on 7” & 12” vinyl editions and CD through 7/30 https://t.co/zSHpnhUlLb pic.twitter.com/uPiK0cZP4i
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 28, 2020
By Andrea Dresdale
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