Taylor Swift extended her record-setting 2022 performance with the debut of her tenth studio album Midnights on October 21st, released on Republic Records/Universal Music Group. In just eight weeks, Midnights has achieved over 6 million album equivalent units worldwide, 3 million in the U.S. alone, and cements her in music history as the only artist ever to have five albums with over 1 million units during release week. The blockbuster release moved almost 1.6 million during its debut week. Midnights is the first album to sell over 1 million physical albums since 2015.
Universal Music Group Chairman & CEO, Sir Lucian Grainge said, “Taylor is a multidimensional creative force whose achievements place her among the most accomplished artists in the history of music, and we are thrilled and honored to partner with her across so many aspects of her career.”
Republic Records Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Monte Lipman said, “Taylor’s achievements over the past year have been absolutely spectacular! With more than two dozen historic milestones set by Midnights, it’s nearly unimaginable for any artist to sell more than six million albums in less than eight weeks during any era of our business. These accomplishments further exemplify Taylor’s prowess as the consummate artist and storyteller defining a generation.”
The eleven-time GRAMMY winner broke streaming, physical and vinyl album sales milestones around the world as the critically acclaimed Midnights became the fastest-selling album of her career and Swift became the first artist in history to capture the entire Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Taylor Swift has 36.6 billion combined streams of her music and 22.4 million album-equivalent units to-date in 2022.
Universally acclaimed as one of her generations’ most influential artists, Swift was also recognized for her work this year as a performer, songwriter and director. Over the course of the year, she earned multiple awards, including: six American Music Awards (Artist of the Year, Country Female Artist, Pop/Rock Female Artist, Music Video, Country Album & Pop Album), extending her lead as the most awarded artist in AMA history; three People’s Choice Awards (Album Of The Year, Best Music Video & Female Artist of The Year); The NSAI Nashville Songwriter Award for Songwriter of the Decade; three MTV Video Music Awards (Video of The Year, Best Director, Best Longform Video for All Too Well: The Short Film), four MTV EMA’s (Best Artist, Best Pop, Best Video, & Best Longform Video for All Too Well: The Short Film); four Billboard Music Awards (Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Country Artist, Top Female Country Album and Top Country Album); among others.
Swift has also been nominated for a string of forthcoming awards, including: four Grammy Awards (Song of The Year – “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (The Short Film)”; Best Country Song; Best Music Video and Best Song Written for Visual Media for “Carolina” from the motion picture soundtrack to Where The Crawdads Sing. “Carolina” was also recently nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Critics Choice Award and Hollywood Critics Association Award. Carolina was also named to the Oscar shortlist for Best Original Song in 2023.
Taylor Swift: Accolades & History Made in 2022
–Midnights debuted with a career high 1+ billion first week global streams
-Became only artist to have five albums debut with over 1 million units sold in their first week in U.S. Nielsen history
-Leading artist in U.S. for on-demand and streaming equivalent albums
–Midnights achieved 3 Million+ album consumption in its first week
–Midnights earned over 1 million US pure album sales in one week, the first album to achieve this since her own ‘reputation‘ (2017)
-In the U.S. Midnights was the highest selling physical release of 2022, selling +1.3 million copies. Additionally Swift sold another 1.1 million physical records in the U.S. across her catalog in 2022.
–Midnights launched at #1 with a career-high 1.578 Million units sold first week
-First Artist in History to Capture the Entire Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart, and the entire top ten on the Digital sales chart. She also claimed the same feat in Canada.
-Set new record for vinyl sales week with 575K copies sold in the U.S., Also the biggest selling vinyl in U.K., Canada and Australia in the modern vinyl era
-First artist in history to capture entire top 5 on Billboard Global 200
-First artist to simultaneously debut #1 on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 on four occasions
-Broke record for most consecutive #1 studio album debuts on billboard 200 (11)
-Captured biggest streaming week for album by a female artist (549 million)
–Midnights broke record for biggest album debut in Spotify history with 185m+ streams
-Biggest first week global streams for an album on Spotify (785m)
-Captured top 5 biggest song debuts in global Spotify chart history
-Biggest first day and first week global streams for an album on Amazon
-Biggest first day global streams for a pop album on Apple Music
-Biggest first day global streams for an album in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music
–Midnights Debuted at #1 in 19 countries including U.S., Australia, U.K., France, Germany & Italy
-In Australia, Swift became first artist in history with a #1 Single, #1 Album & #1 Airplay debut, and topped both sales charts for five consecutive weeks.
-In Canada, tracks from Midnights occupied entire on Canadian Hot 100 chart
-In Brazil, Midnights had biggest first-day streams for an album on Spotify
-In the Philippines, Midnights captured the top 6 biggest debuts in Spotify history
-In China, the album was the fastest selling album by a Western artist.
-More than 22.6 million Album Equivalent Units in 2022*
-36.6 billion total combined streams across all platforms*
-Broke record for most Top 10 Hits by a Female Artist (40)
(*To 12/15 – Source: UMG Data)
In 2023, Swift will embark on her highly anticipated Taylor Swift |The Eras Tour, playing 52 stadium shows in the U.S.