Taylor Swift's new album "1989" is the first album of the year to go platinum. The young star managed to sell over 1.287 million copies of the album, further placing her deep in the history books as one of the hottest young stars of our time.
It all took place in the first week the album went on sale. Early progress allowed some to believe that "1989" could unseat Britney Spear's 2000 album that achieved 1.319 million units sold in its first week.
As it stands right now, Britney Spears still holds the spot of most-sold album in the first week for a female entertainer, and we doubt that will change any time soon. The music industry is moving into a different direction, which will likely see a decline in album sales.
From what we've come to understand, more than half of Taylor Swift's "1989" album sales is due to people purchasing the physical copies. The smaller number comes from digital sales. This is a huge surprise considering the rise of digital sales and the gradual fall of CDs. Maybe this is an isolated issue and might never happen again.
Interestingly enough, though, the tide could turn as several entertainers are pushing to bring back the glory days of old where people went out and purchased CDs. These entertainers have chosen to keep their newest music away from the likes of Spotify, Google Music, and Xbox Music for a time.
The goal is to release albums on CD first, then music services long after. It's a trend that appears to be working, but for how long?
The battle is getting ugly as recently Taylor Swift removed her music from Spotify, mainly because the music service failed to adhere to her demands. Spotify operates in 58 countries though Taylor Swift wanted her music to be available in 57. The odd country out is the United States where Swift is more familiar.
Unfortunately for Spotify, it declined, and Swift took her music and went home.
It will be interesting to see how this battle ends. One thing is for certain, something has to give because CD is a dying breed, though it is still the better option for listening to music since the quality is lossless.
