SWIFT DOES IT AGAIN

According to our final projection, with 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Republic force of nature Taylor Swift lands the biggest first week of 2023.

Swift’s rerecording of her 2015 Grammy Album of the Year opens with 1.58m units on the HITS Top 50. Vinyl sales account for 600k of that total, breaking the record for sales of vinyl in a single week (again), while posting 300k in SEA.

Our chart gerbil advises us that there is a +/- variance of 1% in this projection, but if it holds, the new release edges past Swift’s previous set, 2022’s Midnights, which logged what was previously the biggest debut of her career. 1989 (TV) also surpassed the 2014 opening of the original album, which premiered with 1.29m units.

The "new" set amassed nearly 400m streams its first week. On 10/27, the album earned the most global Spotify streams in a single day in 2023 (so far); the megastar also earned the most total artist streams in a single day on the platform. Additionally, the set scored the biggest album debut on Spotify in 2023 with 176m streams and the second biggest album debut in the DSP's history, only behind her own Midnights.

The rerecording also becomes 2023's 18th album to cross 1m units in total activity. Swift has six of those titles, including the original 1989. Since 2010, six of the eight albums to open with activity north of 1m units in their first week belong to Tay.

We note that she has three albums in the current Top 10, with Midnights at #7 and Lover at #9. Proving that other acts exist in the universe, PLEDIS/Geffen’s SEVENTEEN scores a #2 debut with SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN, which moves 98k.

More than 3.5m copies of1989 (Taylor's Version) were sold globally. So far it has debuted at #1 in 14 countries, among them Canada, France and the U.K.

Streeting this week are titles by BIGHIT/Geffen’s Jung Kook, CoJo/Warner Nashville’s Cody Johnson, RCA’s Kevin Abstract, Sony Latin/Joytime Collective’s Marshmello, Broken Bow’s Jason Aldean and Mailboat/Sun Records' late, great Jimmy Buffett.

Peep the full chart here.