Taylor Swift :: The “Folklore“ Era

[Tansike]

On Friday, 24th July 2020, Taylor Swift surprise-released her eighth studio album folklore. It spawned two singles so far: cardigan, where the video got released alongside the album release, and exile with Bon Iver, that is scheduled to be serviced to adult alternative radio on the 3rd August 2020.

Within the first week of its release, there have been several records Taylor has broken with folklore:

• With 80.6 million streams, folklore earned the top spot for the biggest debut for a female album on global Spotify [source]
• With 35.5 million streams, folklore earned the largest Apple Music debut for a pop album [source]
• cardigan (#4 with 7.7M), the 1 (#6 with 7.4M) and exile (#9 with 6.9M) all reached the Top10 of the biggest debuts by female artists on global Spotify [source]
• folklore sold more than 1,3 million copies globally in just 24 hours [source]
• folklore sold 107,000 digital copies in the US in just 24 hours [source]
• folklore sold more than 500,000 units in the US in just 3 days, having already earned the biggest sales week for any album in 2020 at that point and is already the best selling album by a female artist in the US pure sales this year [source]
• cardigan, the 1, exile, the last great american dynasty and my tears ricochet all already sold over 100,000 copies in the US after just 3 days [source]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a weighted average score of 89, based on 21 reviews, the highest score for any of her albums.

Huge thank you to everyone who contributes to this topic.
Special shoutout to JeremySpears

[Tansike]

Reserved

[Tansike]

Reserved.

[Tansike]

Have no access to laptop or computer until the weekend, so I will make a better opening post then. New albums drops tonight, really excited!

[JeremySpears]

I was just about to open my first ever chart topic Tansike.

[JeremySpears]

She's already slaying

[Britneysdream]

How’s that possible? Pre orders?

[JeremySpears]

[Britneysdream]

I’m going to say this will do 600k in the USA and 1 million worldwide first week, that’s my opinion

[adamf2thedeath]

Omg. I’m so out of the loop. I didn’t even realise she had announced this!!!

[JeremySpears]

[JeremySpears]

[JeremySpears]

“cardigan” is now Taylor's 39th #1 song on iTunes US extending her record as the artist with the most No. 1's.

[Britneysdream]

I can’t see updates on kworb

[JeremySpears]

The album is #1 in 40 countries according to Kworb.

[AnderF10]

China (QQ Music) total sales: 227,646. Probably 250k by tomorrow.

[Choley]

China (QQ Music) total sales: 227,646. Probably 250k by tomorrow.

Is this pure or with SPS?

[Canadaniel]

Is the album not available on iTunes US yet? I can‘t find on kworb but it already charted #1 on Apple Music.

[AnderF10]

Is this pure or with SPS?

Pure.

[strong91]

China (QQ Music) total sales: 227,646. Probably 250k by tomorrow.

The album has also sold 244K on Netease (another big music platform) so far.

[Mugen]

Wow, China loves Taylor. I wonder how she's doing in other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.

[JeremySpears]

[JeremySpears]

US iTunes

#1 Folklore

#2 cardigan
#3 the 1
#5 exile
#27 august
#32 betty
#34 mad woman
#36 invisible string
#38 my tears ricochet
#40 the last great american dynasty
#48 this is me trying
#63 illicit affairs
#65 seven
#71 peace
#79 mirrorball
#89 epiphany
#93 hoax

[JeremySpears]

“the 1” has hit #1 on US Apple Music. It’s her first #1 on the platform since “Look What You Made Me Do”. It's the first song by a female artist to top the chart since Selena's "Lose You To Love Me".

[Britneysdream]

Do we have any idea how much it has sold in the USA so far today? I’m really curious on how much it is selling

[Kevinmakeme]

[ViviLittleM]

Smash

[JeremySpears]

7 songs in the Top 10 wow

[ghost0012]

any idea what the first week would be? another million seller? the consistency im glad she aint doing pop anymore but despite going back to the old stripped sound she still sells or might sell like crazy. Wow if coldplay could only be like that too lol Everyday life was almost ignored despite a change of sound

[spiritboy]

This will be the top selling album by a female artist in US this year, unless Adele surprise drops the album. I hope she'll open with at least 500k. Taylor did it again.