Reuters — Taylor Swift on Tuesday is proving she’s the rare artist who can defy the digital age.
Her latest album, “Reputation,” is smashing sales records in part by selling physical ones.
The album is bucking the streaming trend in its first week of release with over half a million copies sold on CD.
That’s the biggest week for a physical album since Adele’s “25” in 2015.
“Reputation” blasted to Number One on the Billboard 200 chart and became the biggest album debut of the year with more than 1.2 million total copies sold.
Of that figure, more than 700,000 were paid digital downloads – an impressive number given that first-week downloads were available only through iTunes and Swift’s website.
But most significant perhaps was her decision to keep “Reputation” off of all streaming services, such as Spotify – where fans could have heard her songs for free.
Despite those sites’ massive popularity, Swift is proving her fans are willing to pay up to $15 a pop for her music.
