Taylor Swift’s New Album Would Have Gone To No. 1 Based On CD Sales Alone

It’s been assumed for years now that CDs are all but a dead format in America. While the shiny plastic discs have been making something of a comeback lately, they are still nowhere near as popular as they used to be. In a surprising twist, Taylor Swift’s new album was so successful on CD that it defies a years-long downward trend and highlights her immense popularity.

Swift’s just-dropped 1989 (Taylor’s Version) opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week with the largest opening sum of 2023—and also of her career. The set starts atop the ranking of the most-consumed albums in the U.S. with more than 1.6 million equivalent units shifted, including both sales and streams.

Included in that massive figure are 554,000 copies sold on CD. That number is so large that if 1989 (Taylor’s Version) had only been released on CD, it still would have gone to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In fact, it wouldn’t have faced any real competition, despite the fact that millions of Americans–including some superfans of the singer–might not even have a way to play a CD any longer.

This week, the No. 2 title on the Billboard 200, Seventeen’s Seventeenth Heaven, arrives with 100,000 equivalent units. That number is comprised almost entirely of pure sales, but not entirely. Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sold more than five times that figure on CD alone.

Billboard notes that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) earns the largest sales week on CD in more than seven years. The last title to sell more copies on the format in America in a single tracking frame was Adele’s 25. That blockbuster sold 1.03 million copies on CD in a week at the end of 2015, a few farmes after it had been released.

Helping Swift sell as many copies of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on CD as she did were the many different editions she offered. These days, many die-hard followers of a musician opt to buy a CD not as a means to hear the music, but rather as a collectible. Smart artists like Swift have leaned into this, producing several options with differing covers, tracklists, and the like.