Taylor Swift's Pop Curveball: '1989' Review
The new album is Swift's fifth studio effort, released through Big Machine Records on Oct. 27. Its sales forecast is for the tracking week ending Nov. 2. It could mark Swift's third million-selling debut in a row, following 2010's Speak Now (1.05 million) and 2012's Red (1.21 million).
Two weeks ago, forecasters pegged the new album to sell 750,000 in its debut frame. Then, a week ago, it was upgraded to 800,000. By mid-day Oct. 27, the album's release day, its projection grew to over 900,000.
Now, after its first day on sale, forecasters are confident 1989 will cross the magic, one-million sales threshold. 1989's official first-week sales, as tabulated by SoundScan, will be announced on Wednesday, Nov. 5. That same day, Swift will most likely also debut atop the new Billboard 200 albums chart with 1989, giving her a fourth chart-topping set.
If 1989 sells over a million, Swift will notch the biggest sales week for an album since her own Red registered the last million-selling week: when it debuted nearly two years ago (in the week ending Oct. 28).
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1989 will also instantly become 2014's second-biggest selling album after just one week on sale. Currently, the top two sellers this year are the Frozen soundtrack (3.2 million) and Beyonce's self-titled album (787,000). They are followed by Lorde's Pure Heroine (767,000) and Coldplay's Ghost Stories (737,000). The latter is 2014's biggest-selling album released this year, as Frozen, Beyonce and Pure Heroine came out in 2013.
Sources say 1989 is performing extraordinarily well in the iTunes Store and Target, with the latter carrying an exclusive version of the album with bonus tracks.
Swift has been in full-on promotion mode this week in support of 1989. On Oct. 27, stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show, ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's The Voice, and also participated in iHeartRadio's multi-platform show "Taylor Swift's 1989 Secret Session with iHeartRadio." The next day, she was scheduled to visit The Voice again, along with a stop on CBS' The Late Show With David Letterman. On Oct. 29, she heads to ABC's The View. The following day, she's slated to perform a concert on Good Morning America.