How Taylor Swift Became 2014's Highest Selling Artist

The world loves to hate Taylor Swift, but the former-country-starlet-turned-pop-queen is about to be the one laughing all the way to the bank with what may be 2014's ONLY platinum album: 1989.

Swift’s album was released at the end of 2014, and it had the second highest-selling week of any record since 2002. The album sold 1.287 milllion copies in the first week alone! The last album to have sold that many copies — a whopping 1.322 million in its debut week — was Eminem’s The Eminem Show. If Swift’s 1989 sales continue at this rate, it could easily earn the title of highest-selling first week of an album by a female singer, beating out Britney Spears’s Oops! ...I Did it Again, which currently holds the top position.

So if people are so into buying Swift records, why is the music industry looking so grim? This time last year, five albums had already achieved platinum status with Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience leading the way. So far this year, the only other album to have passed the million sales that marks platinum status is the soundtrack to Disney’s Frozen, which speaks more to parents trying to appease their children than any sort of revival of the industry. And many think that Swift’s success is also due to a combination of the right circumstances, not because people are going to start buying albums again.

“I would like to believe that this recent achievement could be a sign of more to come,” entertainment attorney Lori Landew is quoted explaining over at Forbes. “[But] I tend to believe that it is more an aberration that can be attributed to a super strong and loyal fan base.”

Though music piracy was once to blame for the decrease in music sales, a new foe to the industry has shown itself to be quite formidable: streaming services. Sites, apps, and programs like Pandora and Spotify are more user-friendly than attempting to find high-quality copies of albums to download illegally, and they’re cheaper than purchasing individual albums or songs. Some services, like Songza, come with a few limitations but are entirely free to use. Not to mention that, with streaming services, you never have to worry about finding space for your extensive CD collection.

All things considered, Swift’s very recent decision to pull her music from Spotify could be a risky move on her part. But, given the unequaled success she’s had in album sales — her last three albums have all had million-selling weeks — it would come as a surprise to no one if the annoyingly lovable songstress still manages to prove her worth the old-school way. Fret not, Tay Swift frenemies, the country-pop princess won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.



[Pic via Flick'r - Eva Rinaldi}