Taylor Swift is having her cake and eating it too. Her monster release 1989 set the standard for albums dropped during 2014, selling nearly 1.3 million copies during its first week. Now the folks over at Nielsen Soundscan are saying she'll win the Billboard 200 competition during the album's second week as well. And not just win it: She'll actually have the second highest sales week for any album during 2014.
The previous high, prior to 1989, was when Coldplay released its new album Ghost Stories back in May, selling 383,000 copies during its first week (a drop from its previous release Mylo Xyloto). Swift got bigger sales numbers for her new release than her previous record Red, despite the overwhelming drop in album sales over the last few years. Now 1989 is expected to move 400,000 copies during its second week.
It's doubtful that she'll be able to keep spots nos. 1 and 2 all the way through the rest of the year however. Music Times is willing to hazard a guess that Garth Brooks will grab the no. 2 overall sales week when he drops Man Against Machine later in November (although he's got a snowball's chance in July of reaching the numbers Swift posted last week). Still, she should expect to reach double-platinum status through four weeks of sales, and could even do it after three weeks if her numbers don't drop too rapidly next week.
Three other albums cracked the 50,000 sales mark last week, a fact that the music industry won't be able to enjoy after the most recent week of sales. Calvin Harris is expected to be a distant second to Swift this week with his new LP Motion, which is only expected to move upwards of 35,000 copies. Official numbers will become available on November 12.
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