Taylor's got many of the traditional bases covered for her rollout of
Lover. It's not quite a scorched earth campaign, more of a select group of partners that can ostensibly move the needle. Here's a roundup of her corporate partnerships, merch and retail shenanigans. If it feels a little light on old skool retail, it’s because lately there are fewer brick and mortar outlets at which to buy physical CD’s, and scant devices on which to play them.
Capital One: TV commercial running since 7/26, in which she plays a waitress at a diner, a bartender, and an ice cream shop server. Customers pay with their Capital One Savor Card.
Capital One website
official store: Cardholder Exclusive Album Bundle, consisting of a one-of-a-kind Taylor Swift t-shirt and digital Standard Edition of the album
Lover. And a link to buy the physical CD on her site.
Email blast 8/16 to presumably millions of existing account holders: How many received it? If a hypothetical just 1m received the email blast, and then 1% of them clicked-through and bought either the digital or physical LP, that could amount to a ballpark of some 10k units to add her grand first week tally.
Stella McCartney x Taylor Swift merchandise pop-up
“The Lover Experience” presented by Capital One 8/23-8/25, at a secret New York City location TBA.
Target: Online: homepage "Get Excited" feature leads to
Target Lover page with links to pre-order four deluxe CD versions at 16.99 each, along with link to preorder standard CD at 12.99.
In-store: expect robust displays of four deluxe CD versions and the standard-edition CD.
Amazon: Amazon.com has the physical standard CD for 12.99 —will it be available at the multitude of Amazon-owned
Whole Foods stores? CD and double-vinyl? Amazon.com also has a limited
Lover CD box set for 79.99, which includes a lyric book, postcards, PopSocket phone stand, temporary tattoo and a tote bag, though it shows as currently unavailable.
On 7/10, Tay headlined Amazon's big
Prime Day Concert, so we can assume there may be more tie-ins with the retail giant (see related story link below).
Additionally, her
Spotify profile has links to buy merch and the standard CD, fulfilled by her
Merchbar.com store. CD shows as a preorder, along with an assortment of in-stock T-shirts, hoodies, sunglasses, jewelry, keychains, a watch and an
iPhone case. And of course, a link to the just-launched
Love, Taylor: Lover Enhanced Album playlist.
Fans can remix "You Need to Calm Down" in select
Apple Stores at the
#todayatapple Music Lab, according to Tay's
Instagram post Thursday morning.
Also available at
Barnes & Noble (standard CD),
Urban Outfitters (who, in addition to the standard CD, have a limited cassette tape for 19.98),
Walmart (standard CD) and
taylorswift.com. Curiously,
Best Buy only carries vinyl now - no word yet on when they might carry this album.
Also, no word yet on whether Taylor plans to try to buy Greenland with the royalties she'll receive once this album streets.
