Goodbye “Hello.”
The video for Taylor Swift’s new single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” has shattered streaming records, jettisoning Adele’s “Hello” from the top spot. In less than 24 hours, T-Swizzle’s feisty, self-mocking clip racked up over 30 million views on Vevo. As of 9 am ET on Tuesday, that number stands at more than 52 million on YouTube.
That’s a tremendously good omen for Swift’s upcoming album reputation, due out Nov. 10. High consumer interest can translate to strong sales of physical media —something that’s increasingly rare in today’s streaming music world. And Swift, like Adele, is one of the few consistent moneymakers the music industry has.
The record number of video views continues the pas de deux between the pop divas. In 2014, Swift set the Vevo record with “Bad Blood,” garnering 20.1 million views in the first 24 hours. The next year, Adele claimed the spot as “Hello” was watched 27.7 million times during its first day in rotation. That video went on to top 100 million views in five days, another record Swift should easily shatter.
While some people hate Swift’s new song, it’s an undeniable monster hit. Spotify says it has been streamed 23 million times, and three-day download sales neared 246,000.
The big Adele/Swift battle to watch, though, is album sales. Adele sold 3.4 million in one week with 25. The question is increasingly looking less like “will Swift top that?” and more like “by how much?”