So it wouldn't be a Taylor Swift PR frenzy without some up's and down's and some good old fashioned record breaking. Just how many records has she sold?! She is projected to sell over 1.3 million, which is the biggest sales week for a female artist since Britney Spears' "Oops! ... I Did It Again" in 2000. And the biggest week in album sales since 2002's "The Eminem Show" by, you guessed it, Eminem.
Although it's her fifth album, she has now set the record with three consecutive million-selling weeks for her album debuts. That has never been done before. NBD.
We don't know who her PR person is, but they are getting a serious pat on the back right now. Naturally, these records would mean nothing without a world tour to accompany it. So Taylor decided to announce her tour dates this week, with only THREE UK dates. Sorry, what? If you want to fly all over the world to see Taytay in all of her high waisted short-clad glory, here are the dates:
May 20, 2015 – Bossier City, LA @ CenturyLink Center
May 22, 2015 – Baton Rouge, LA @ LSU Tiger Stadium
May 30, 2015 – Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
June 2, 2015 – Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center
June 3, 2015 – Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
June 6, 2015 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Heinz Field
June 8, 2015 – Charlotte, NC @ Time Warner Cable Arena
June 9, 2015 – Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
June 13, 2015 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field
June 20, 2015 – Cologne, Germany @ Lanxess Arena
June 21, 2015 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
June 23, 2015 – Glasgow, Scotland @ SSE Hydro
June 24, 2015 – Manchester, England @ Arena
June 27, 2015 – London, England @ British Summertime Hyde Park
July 6, 2015 - Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre
July 7, 2015 - Montreal, QB @ Bell Centre
July 11, 2015 - East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
July 13, 2015 - Washington, DC @ Nationals Park
July 18, 2015 - Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
July 24 & 25, 2015 – Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
August 1, 2015 – Vancouver, BC @ BC Place Stadium
August 4 & 5, 2015 – Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
August 8, 2015 – Seattle, WA @ CenturyLink Field
August 15, 2015 – Santa Clara, CA @ Levi’s Stadium
August 17 & 18, 2015 – Glendale, AZ @ Gila River Arena
August 25 & 26, 2015 – Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
August 29, 2015 – San Diego, CA @ PETCO Park
September 4, 2015 – Salt Lake City, UT @ EnergySolutions Arena
September 5 & 6, 2015 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
September 9, 2015 – Fargo, ND @ Fargodome
September 11 & 12, 2015 – St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
September 16, 2015 – Indianapolis, IN @ Bankers Life Fieldhouse
September 17 & 18, 2015 – Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena
September 21 & 22, 2015 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
September 25 & 26, 2015 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
October 2 & 3, 2015 - Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
October 8, 2015 – Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena
October 9 & 10 2015 – Omaha, NE @ CenturyLink Center
October 13 & 14, 2015 – St. Louis, MO @ Scottrade Center
October 17, 2015 – Dallas, TX @ AT&T Stadium
October 20, 2015 – Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
October 21, 2015 Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex
October 24, 2015 – Atlanta, GA @ Georgia Dome
October 27, 2015 - Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena
October 31, 2015 – Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium
European tour date pre-sales start today (Nov 4th) and North America pre-sales start Nov 7th. Hint: those on T Swift's mailing list get first dibs on reserving tickets. You can join it here.
So what's the deal with Spotify? Well the one negative piece of this press tour has been T Swift's decision to take ALL of her music off Spotify, and unfortunately for all those Swifties out there, 25% of Spotify listeners have streamed Taylor Swift songs, and they appeared 20 million playlists.
Turns out, speculation is that Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Taylor's label Big Machine Label Group, demanded that the music be pulled as it isn't helping drive revenue for the album's release. Borchetta is reportedly trying to sell the label group and good album sales numbers looks better for potential buyers who won't care about views on Spotify. Greedy lil record exec. Check out Spotify's presh response:
"We love Taylor Swift, and our more than 40 million users love her even more – nearly 16 million of them have played her songs in the last 30 days, and she's on over 19 million playlists.
We hope she'll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone. We believe fans should be able to listen to music wherever and whenever they want, and that artists have an absolute right to be paid for their work and protected from piracy. That's why we pay nearly 70% of our revenue back to the music community.
PS – Taylor, we were both young when we first saw you, but now there's more than 40 million of us who want you to stay, stay, stay. It's a love story, baby, just say, Yes."
And yes, they even created a come back Taylor Swift playlist called "What To Play While Taylor's Away." Hopefully this record exec, who we assume is not hard for cash in the least, wises up and gives the Swifters what they want. After all, it's definitely what Olivia Benson would want. And Olivia Benson gets what Olivia Benson wants. Just look at that face:
Do you think Taylor should put her music back on Spotify? Tweet at us! @sofeminineUK!
This article was written by Dagney Pruner. Follow her on Twitter @dagneyp
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