People Still Buy Music: Taylor Swift on track to sell a million copies of her new record this week

By Marah Eakin  |  October 24, 2012 | 4:10pm
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People Still Buy Music: Taylor Swift on track to sell a million copies of her new record this week
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When Mumford & Sons sold 600,000 copies in one week earlier this month, it seemed like kind of a big deal. But now Taylor Swift is set to surpass those totals with her new album, Red. According to Hits Daily Double, early estimates put her on track to sell a million copies in the album’s first week of release. According to sources at Swift's label, her first-day sales alone topped 262,000. Add that to the 4.5 million tracks sold on iTunes before the record even came out, and Swift is looking at a pretty substantial payday.

Swift also currently holds 13 of the top 20 songs on the iTunes singles chart, while Red is No. 1 on iTunes in 32 different countries, including the U.K., Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Denmark, Venezuela, Thailand, and Ireland.

These numbers mean Swift will be the first artist in a decade to have two straight albums go platinum in their debut weeks. She’s also only the fifth woman in history to have racked up 50 songs on the Billboard Hot 100—and she’s accomplished that in just six years, faster than the other women on that list Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Connie Francis, and Dionne Warwick. Franklin, the next fastest woman to make it to 50, took over 14 years to hit the mark.

 
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