With so much focus on Taylor Swift's Lover—specifically just how big her seventh LP's first-week numbers will be—let's examine how pop contemporaries Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Ed Sheeran performed leading up to their album drop, and how they compare to Tay's lead-in tracks.
Sales: 628k Streams: 529m Activity to date: 2m
Billie Eilish: Two and a half years of development culminated into a breakthrough debut album for the teen phenom with her Darkroom/Interscope set, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? Led by early singles "bury and friend" and "when the party's over," from 1/10/19 to album drop (3/28/19), Eilish's activity from four pre-album tracks follow:Sales: 147k Streams: 219m ATD: 1.8m
Ed Sheeran: The U.K. giant kicked off his No.6 Collaborations Project with fellow massive global star Justin Bieber on "I Don't Care." The lead single arrived about two months ahead of the full album, followed by collabs with Chance The Rapper & PNB Rock and new-school superstar Khalid. Collectively, the three all-star collabs earned the following in total activity from 5/15/19 to 7/11/19:Sales: 362K Streams: 227m ATD: 614k
Taylor Swift: Leading off for Lover was Swift's "ME!" featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco. Tay pulled out all the stops for that video and second single, "You Need To Calm Down." The LGBTQ anthem was packed with cameos of celebrities and LGBTQ icons. Those two singles along with album track "The Archer," give Swift the following tally before album drop:
Sales: 600K Streams: 262m
Follow the links below for clues about how Lover might fare in its first week and the myriad facets of Taylor's strategic rollout.
