Taylor Swift’s breakthrough album is breaking through again.
The re-release of “1989” has outsold the original’s first week numbers by a fairly wide margin. “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” sold 1.65 million copies in its first week, a 28% improvement on the 1.29 million the original sold. That makes it the fifth best selling album, as ranked by Week One sales.
The remake also set a new personal Week One sales record for Swift.
The entertainer has been remaking her back catalog for years, offering covers of her own songs after she was unable to buy the master recording copyrights. But “1989” is a different beast than “Red” or “Fearless”. This was the album that firmly moved her from country/crossover artist to fully fledged pop star. Its hits include “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Style”.
Swift knows the value of the album, too. While it would have been an easy one to reissue first, she opted to hold it in reserve until consumers were used to the idea of re-releases. And long before the fight for her master recordings was a consideration, she stopped allowing streaming services from playing the album as she lobbied for higher streaming fees (and earned more from physical and digital release sales).
Beyond the original album’s hits, the re-release comes with additional tracks, which didn’t make the original album’s final cut. “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” includes five previously unreleased songs.
The business strategy has worked. Swift is hands down the music industry’s biggest star today. Her Eras tour was so popular it has been mentioned in reports by the Federal Reserve and put Ticketmaster in the crosshairs of Congress after it melted down when tickets went on sale. Recently, Swift officially became a billionaire following the U.S. leg of the tour.
