'Speak Now (Taylor's Version)' Contains 'Cursed' Music, Sets to Break the Current Record On Vinyl Album Sales

Taylor Swift
SASCHA SCHUERMANN / Contributor

A select group of Swifties were in for a great shock when they received their vinyl copies of "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)," as the records played British electronica music instead of any Taylor Swift songs.

A popular TikTok video released by user @myschief_marauder showed the vinyl's unintentional mis-pressing in action.

Before playing the record's "Side A," which instead played "Mine (Taylor's Version)" by Cabaret Voltaire, she asks in her video, "Does anyone else's 'Speak Now' vinyl not have Taylor Swift on it?"

"We are aware that there are an extremely limited number of incorrectly pressed vinyl copies in circulation and have addressed the issue. If you have purchased one of the affected goods, please contact customer service at your respective retailer for a replacement or refund," Universal Music Group, which parents Swift's label Republic Records, shared in a statement to Billboard.

The distribution company Above Board Distribution also commented on the incident on Instagram, reposting the original video from @myschief_marauder with a punny Swift commentary. "We have learned that some Taylor Swift fans received a misprinted copy of 'Speak Now (Taylor's Version)' that contains audio of our in-house compilation 'Happy Land (A Compendium of Music from the British Isles 1992-1996)," the label explained.

They said they could never have imagined this circumstance in they wildest dreams. They added that they truly hope that anyone who received the record that is Not Taylor's Version gets mesmerized by the lovely electronica, even though we are well aware that this error was out of their control.

With the release of her most recent single, Speak Now (Taylor's Version), Taylor Swift is ready to dominate the charts and once again demonstrate her great strength and appeal.

After its first complete week of release, the album is predicted to top the Billboard 200 list and perform admirably across a range of criteria, including sales. In the case of vinyl, the release has the potential to be historic.

Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is expected to sell a lot of vinyl in addition to dominating the charts and becoming the biggest song of the week, according to music industry journal HitsDailyDouble. The article speculates that the re-recorded album might sell between 500,000 and 600,000 vinyl-only copies.

If Speak Now (Taylor's Version) sells at the higher end of that range, it will break the current record for the biggest sales week for a single vinyl album. Swift now holds that record, which she set not long ago. Midnights, her most recent album of wholly original songs, sold 575,000 copies on vinyl alone in its first seven days of release in late 2022.

According to a new assessment from the music industry, vinyl sales in the United States grew by 21.7% during the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

Midnights by Taylor Swift, published last October, is the best-selling vinyl LP of the year, with 251,000 copies sold. She tops a list that also includes Lana Del Rey, the supergroup Boygenius, Melanie Martinez, Fleetwood Mac (whose album Rumours has sold 103,000 copies this year), and Michael Jackson. Except for Midnights, whose 176,000 units sold placed them at No. 6, the top ten best-selling CDs were all by K-pop groups.

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