The haters can hate, hate, hate, hate, hate all they want. Taylor Swift’s star is showing no signs of dimming.
The singer’s new single, “Me!” dropped at midnight Friday and is seemingly on course to set the new record for most views of a music video within its first 24 hours. As of 10:30 this morning, the splashy, colorful video for the song (which features Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco and is seemingly loaded with Easter Eggs for future music) had racked up 22 million views, according to the site (but it had topped 31 million earlier, raising questions on if the system was having trouble keeping up with demand).
It was escalating at a pace of roughly 4 million views per hour.
Ariana Grande is the current record holder with Vevo, as “Thank U, Next” was viewed 55.4 million times upon its release. Swift set the record with the debut release from her previous album as well.
Whether she breaks the record or not, it’s a tremendously good omen for Swift’s as-yet untitled new upcoming album. 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.
“Me!” is also the top selling song on iTunes as of this morning. And, while Spotify did not reply to a Fortune inquiry about streaming numbers, the song is in heavy rotation on that service as well.
ME! Out now! Made this song with @brendonurie and @iamjoellittle. Dave Meyers and I co-directed the video. And everyone knows you can’t spell awesome without DAVIDBRENDONJOEL. Oh wait… https://t.co/xFsUDfSRSJ pic.twitter.com/0FgYZqMeOP
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 26, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwtLWvUhA7o/
One thing’s certain: The initial feedback from Swifties and casual fans alike is a lot more positive than it was for 2017’s “Look What You Made Me Do.”
