Taylor Swift Apple Music labSource: Apple

What you need to know

  • Taylor Swift's new album has set a new streaming record.
  • "folklore" has already reached 35.47 million streams on Apple Music.
  • This has set a new record for opening of a pop album.

Taylor Swift surpised everyone by dropping a new album only a year after her previous release of "Lover" in 2019, and it is already setting records.

Reported by Deadline, Swift's new album "folklore" has already surpassed 35.47 million streams on Apple Music, a new record for a pop album on the service.

Since its Thursday release, the album surpassed 1.3 million global sales in its first twenty-four hours, according to her Republic Records label. Beyond that, folklore also dominated on the global streaming platforms. Spotify said Swift's total of 79.4 million streams is a new record for an album by a female artist. Apple Music's total of 35.47 million is a new high for a pop album.

According to the report, the album's opening performance will put it at No. 1 on the charts and compete only with Swift's previous album.

That means the album will easily debut at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart, and will have the best showing since Swift's Lover album came out in 2019. Final first-week numbers will not be available until a week from Monday.

Swift wrote, recorded, and released the album after her previous touring plans were postponed due to the pandemic. The artist says that the album was a vessle that allowed her to "pour all of my whims, dreams, fears and musings" into.

"Most of the things I had planned this summer didn't end up happening, but there is something I hadn't planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore. Surprise Tonight at midnight I'll be releasing my entire brand new album of songs I've poured all of my whims, dreams, fears, and musings into. I wrote and recorded this music in isolation but got to collaborate with some musical heroes of mine; @aarondessner (who has co-written or produced 11 of the 16 songs), @boniver (who co-wrote and was kind enough to sing on one with me), William Bowery (who co-wrote two with me) and @jackantonoff (who is basically musical family at this point)."

You can stream "folklore" on Apple Music now.