If you ever wanted to gauge Taylor Swift's clout in the music industry, look no further than the new Apple Music ad that she stars in.
The funny commercial shows the pop star being so engaged rapping along to the lyrics of Drake and Future's "Jumpman" while running the treadmill that she takes a nasty, hard fall off the machine.
While the ad, which ends with the tag line "distractingly good," was released last Friday on April Fool's Day, neither Swift nor Apple Music are playing the role of the fool at all.
Billboard reported Thursday that after Swift posted the spot on her social media accounts last week, iTunes sales of "Jumpman" have shot up a ridiculous 431 percent worldwide. Within that, Billboard additionally reports that the plays for Apple Music's curated "#gymflow" playlist, which was also shown in the ad, have jumped 325 percent, making it the fifth-rated playlist in terms of popularity this week.
The astonishing thing about this is "Jumpman" was a song featured on Drake and Future's joint album, What a Time To Be Alive, released last fall on Sept. 20. That means Swift rapping along to its infectious lyrics breathed life into a song nearly seven months old, possibly bringing it to ears that have never heard it, resulting in the roaring sales leap on iTunes. Pretty impressive.
Altogether, the Swift-starring Apple Music ad has received upwards of 20 million likes on Facebook and Instagram with the tech company more than accomplishing its goal in getting it seen by the masses. Billboard additionally reports that Swift's initial tweet with the embedded clip has amassed 66,960 retweets and 119,000 likes since being posted on Twitter last week.
"To really get an idea that was simple, informative and funny with hooks is really like writing a song," Larry Jackson, Apple Music's head of content, told Adweek. "With an artist that's got 73 million followers on Instagram, that's bigger than NBC, CBS and Fox and the viewership of prime time combined."
It remains to be seen how many new Apple Music subscriptions have been signed up since Taylor fell off that treadmill rapping.
