Taylor Swift's Midnights already fastest-selling album of 2022 so far as she pulls ahead of Arctic Monkeys in race to Number 1

not all of us i fear

although she would end fad minouge so i can’t complain too much

it’s alright but emotion deserved it :(

'Emotion' was amazing too! Definitely deserved so much better. :/

Crazy that she's going to total 9 number one albums in just one day short of a decade. Red 2012 releasing on 22nd October 2022 and Midnights on 21st October 2022... unprecedented.

Second most ever for a female solo artist, I believe! 😮

If she plays it right her versions of 'Taylor Swift', 'Speak Now', '1989' and 'Reputation' she'll have 13 which would be the most for a female solo artist... I wouldn't underestimate her at this stage. Very impressive career trajectory.

'1989' & 'Reputation' are likely to get there, although the original versions of 'Taylor Swift' & 'Speak Now' were much less known in the UK since they had far less hits over here, but if this week proved anything, it's that we should never rule her out. :)

plus, fearless tv got to #1. if she picks a quiet-ish release week she'll have SN and TS taylor versions #1 secured, but at the way she is right now, she'd probably do it even on a busy release week!

All it shows is the derisory sales for albums these days. 100.,000 copies in a week wouldn't have been thought worthy of any comment at all once upon a time. And in those days you had to actually leave your armchair to purchase the record which was far more expensive anyway.

And it also makes it obvious that the album as a format will not be with us for much longer. I mean when on many weeks a band who 99% of the population has and will never hear off but got played a few times on BBC 6 (a station which most people have never heard of), can get to number 1 or on another week a third rate indie group of never-beens can get to number one with some fan-base hype and leave the charts the week after, it shows the format has obviously outlived its relevance.

As we know many rap acts in the US don't even bother putting out albums anymore the sales in the American album charts being so atrocious.

It's ironic that in the second half of the 1960s the album overtook the single as the format da jure and then 55 years later the single is triumphant once again. The fact that in Britain it seems certain that 'Rumours' and Queen's 'Greatest Hits' (at respectively 46 and 41 years since their initial release) will remain high in the album charts permanently until albums are no longer a thing, says it all really.

It's disappointing that album sales are low these days, since I wish more money would go to directly supporting the artists that make the music as it's predominantly their work, but at the end of the day, I get why the sales market is dying off really fast.

We've been living in more of a virtual world for the past few yeats now & Covid only added to that, so people would rather enjoy music from home rather than head out to physically buy an album! Then there's the financial side of it, where streaming sites often allow listening to the music for free or at least at a much lower price, which yet again, has probably been fuelled a lot more in recent months due to the cost of living crisis, although this has obviously been in the case for years after downloads peaked!

That being said, even though they started out in 2006, probably the second half of both Taylor's & AM's discography is streaming era, the former wasn't even that well-known outside of one hit back when even digital sales for albums were at their peak.

Regarding your point on the US market, the pure sales in the Billboard 200 are relatively poor for rap albums, but pop, country & even Latin ones still sell a lot better, so it's obviously important for artists that work in those genres to still shift copies to stores!

At the end of the day, the public's way of consuming music (or any art) has changed so much with all the technological advances, so it's only right that the chart methodology & the way units are counted change to reflect that.

I completely understand that a 100k+ opening week is nothing special or ground-breaking for older generations, but the fact that even 'The Car' will beat 'Harry's House' previous record for the year despite not even entering at #1 shows how strong this week is relative to a large majority of charts throughout the decade!

I've seen the Scottish charts be discontinued due to the lack of current sales & I myself have predicted that the general sales chart will be gone within the next 10-15 years, but I really don't see OCC doing the same for the albums chart, since it's literally their second most popular page after the Top 100 Singles & it's been there from the very start. :)