Bad news for anyone who woke up this morning and thought they might stream Taylor Swift’s new album Reputation while getting ready for the day—you won’t find the album anywhere for free.
Reputation became available on iTunes and other retail outlets on Nov. 10 at midnight, but industry professionals told Bloomberg earlier in the week that Swift planned to hold off making the album available to streaming partners for at least the first week of sales.
Swift already has a reputation (ha, ha) for being a vocal critic of streaming and pulled all her music off streaming platforms like Spotify in 2014. She arguably only returned to streaming platforms in 2017 to mess with Katy Perry’s Witness album release, though her four lead-up singles all landed on Spotify.
Regardless of all these facts, however, many Swift fans and other curious listeners were shocked when the clock tolled midnight the day of the album release and Reputation was nowhere to be found on streaming services.
https://twitter.com/grace_bro/status/928957723877826560
so i missed the whole thing of #reputation not being available on streaming services (or even to buy on @googleplay) like do i have to freaking download itunes now? #ugh
— Hannah Liz (@hannahlizzz) November 10, 2017
https://twitter.com/JJstar52/status/928885494708166656
https://twitter.com/thistownswift/status/928604136467079170
Pretty annoyed that Taylor Swift’s new album won’t be available on streaming services. I’m still iffy based on what I’ve heard of #Reputation, I don’t want to buy it without knowing if I like it first. 😒
— aes (she/her) (@strengthtodream) November 9, 2017
Withholding an album from streaming during its debut week has become commonplace for artists aiming to boost sales and climb the charts. Beyoncé only made Lemonade available on Tidal and Adele didn’t put 25 on streaming services for months after its release—which may explain why the album sold 8 million copies in 2016.
Looks like Swift’s plan is working, too. Fan Twitter accounts said Reputation was already the best female selling album in 2017 within its first three hours, even surpassing Perry’s Witness.
https://twitter.com/TSwiftFCT/status/928879153582968832
Swift’s label predicted Reputation will surpass 2 million album sales in its first week. Taking the album offline can only help.
