Taylor Swift has made history with her tenth studio album ‘Midnights’, becoming the first artist to have five albums that sold over one million units during release week and selling six million album equivalent units worldwide in just two months.
Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge praised the achievement, saying: “Taylor is a multidimensional creative force whose achievements place her among the most accomplished artists in the history of music, and we are thrilled and honored to partner with her across so many aspects of her career.”
Republic Records Founder and CEO, Monte Lipman, added: “Taylor’s achievements over the past year have been absolutely spectacular! With more than two dozen historic milestones set by Midnights, it’s nearly unimaginable for any artist to sell more than six million albums in less than eight weeks during any era of our business. These accomplishments further exemplify Taylor’s prowess as the consummate artist and storyteller defining a generation.”
In November, Taylor announced ‘The Eras Tour’, a series of 52 stadium shows throughout the US featuring various special guests. However, the tour has been marred by controversy after the first round of sales saw thousands of fans reporting lengthy wait times, website outages and hyper-inflated prices on resale sites. Ticketmaster later admitted it buckled under the “historically unprecedented demand” they faced from Swift’s fans, before cancelling the general sale.
In response, Swift refused to “make excuses” for Ticketmaster, claiming that she and her team “asked them, multiple times, if they could hand this kind of demand” and were “assured they could”. Ticketmaster later announced it would sell more ‘Eras’ tour tickets through its Verified Fan program.
