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Taylor Swift’s third re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), was a hot seller in its first week of a release in the U.S., according to the data tracking firm Luminate. In the week ending July 13, the set sold 507,000 copies across all of its physical and digital retail formats (CD, vinyl, cassette and digital download album). That sum represents nearly a quarter of all album sales in the U.S. that week (2.131 million).

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’s share of the album sales market is similar to when she dominated the landscape during the debut week of Midnights in 2022. That album sold 1.14 million copies in the week ending Oct. 27, 2022 – accounting for 41% of all albums sold in the U.S. that week (2.79 million).

Swift can capture a large chunk of the album sales market in a given week because she remains a solid seller at a time when yearly album sales have declined in 10 of the last 11 years, as more music fan adopt streaming services as their primary means of consuming music. Thus, Swift’s outsized album sales dwarf the rest of the industry.

In 2022, Swift was the top-selling act for the year in terms of total album sales, with 2.93 million copies sold across her entire catalog – about 3% of total album sales across all albums from all artists (100.09 million). She also had the year’s top-selling album, with Midnights selling 1.818 million copies (more than twice the sum of the year’s second biggest seller, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, with 757,000).

In 2023 so far, through July 13, Swift’s total album sales across all of her releases stands at 2.096 million – 3.8% of all album sales this year, by all artists (54.519 million).

Swift’s selling power is further evidenced on Billboard’s latest 100-position Top Album Sales chart (dated July 22, reflecting the sales week ending July 13), where Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) debuts at No. 1 with 507,000 copies sold, the Nos. 2-100 titles – combined – sold just 381,000.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new July 22, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 18. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is a re-recorded version of Swift’s 2010 studio album Speak Now, which topped both the Billboard 200 and Top Album Sales chart. The 22-track re-recorded edition includes new recordings of the original album’s 14 standard tracks, along with bonus cuts and previously unreleased “From the Vault” recordings. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) follows Swift’s re-recorded Red and Fearless albums, released in 2021.

Of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’s 507,000 copies sold, physical sales comprise 410,000 (268,000 on vinyl; 134,000 on CD and 8,000 on cassette) while digital album download purchases comprise 97,000. The album’s vinyl sales mark the second-largest week for a vinyl album since Luminate began tracking data in 1991 – only the debut week of Midnights posted a bigger vinyl week (575,000).

Swift announced the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on May 5, the same day she began taking pre-orders for the album via her official webstore. The set sold as a digital download album, double-CD, double-cassette and in three color vinyl LP variants (orchid marbled, violet marbled and a Target-exclusive lilac marbled color). The iTunes Store also carried an exclusive edition of the album with a short video clip as a bonus feature. On the final day (July 13) of the album’s debut tracking week, Swift released a deluxe digital album download of the set exclusively sold through her official webstore, which added two bonus live tracks recorded during her ongoing The Eras Tour (“Dear John” and “Last Kiss,” both of which were originally released in their studio form on the Speak Now album in 2010).

All told, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is the 12th No. 1 on Top Album Sales for Swift.

Elsewhere on the latest Top Album Sales chart, Swift has five more titles in the top 10, as her former No. 1s Midnights (a non-mover at No. 3 with 18,000; up 49%), Folklore (8-6 with 13,000; up 45%), Lover (10-7 with 12,000; up 50%), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (14-9 with 11,000; up 81%) and Red (Taylor’s Version) (19-10 with 10,000; up 89%). It’s the second time Swift has placed at least six titles in the top 10 concurrently. She did it previously on the July 22-dated list. No other act has charted six or more albums in the top 10 at the same time.  

As for the non-Swift titles in the top 10: Stray Kids’ former No. 1 5-STAR is a non-mover at No. 2 (27,000; up 70% after the release of a new CD edition), aespa’s MY WORLD falls 1-4 in its second week (14,000; down 65%), Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. jumps 33-5 (13,000; up 265% after a new vinyl edition of the album was released) and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation debuts at No. 8 (11,000).

In the week ending July 13, there were 2.131 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 22% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.729 million (up 21.8%) and digital albums comprised 402,000 (up 23.2%).

There were 705,000 CD albums sold in the week ending July 13 (up 8% week-over-week) and 1.008 million vinyl albums sold (up 33.4%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 18.893 million (up 4.1% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 25.371 million (up 21.7%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 54.519 million (up 8.1% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 44.556 million (up 13.4%) and digital album sales total 9.962 million (down 10.5%).

We’re now rocking with Will.i.am and Britney, b—-!

The Grammy-winning producer took to social media on Monday (July 17) to tease his new collaboration with Britney Spears, the electro-tinged “Mind Your Business.” The 16-second clip features Spears proclaiming over the track, “Mind your business, b—-!”

According to the post, the song is set to arrive on Tuesday (July 18). The duo previously teamed up on 2013’s “Scream & Shout.”

The track’s title is fitting, as Spears has previously expressed frustration with documentaries about her life and 13-year conservatorship that hit streaming services without her permission. To take back her own story, the pop superstar is unveiling her long-awaited tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me, on Oct. 24. People magazine was first to report the news on the title that’s described as a “brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith and hope.”

Spears teased the memoir last April in a lengthy Instagram post in which she wrote, “Well I’m writing a book at the moment and as it’s actually healing and therapeutic … it’s also hard bringing up past events in my life … I’ve never been able to express openly !!! I can only imagine that I do sound childish but I was extremely young when those events took place … and addressing it now … I’m sure it seems irrelevant to most and I’m completely aware of that !!!”

See the “Mind Your Business” teaser and announcement below.

It all begins with a song — and according to Miranda Lambert, that’s where the focus should stay.

Lambert had just begun to perform her 2018 ACM song of the year winner “Tin Man” as part of her current Miranda Lambert: Velvet Rodeo The Las Vegas Residency on Saturday night when she noticed a few ladies near the stage who seemed more intent on taking selfies rather than listening to Lambert’s music.

“I’m gonna stop right here for a second, I’m sorry,” Lambert told the audience gathered at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino at Zappos Theater. “These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song.”

She added, “It’s pissing me off a bit. Sorry, I don’t like it. At all. We’re here to hear some country music tonight. I’m singing some country d–n music.”

After motioning for the girls to put their phones away, she asked the crowd, “Shall we start again?” She restarted the song as the audience cheered.

Prior to launching her Las Vegas residency in September 2022, Lambert said, “When you’ve been touring as long as I have, there’s something really creative about imagining a residency in a city like Las Vegas. I’ve had a lot of fun designing our sets, merchandise and clothing and boot lines – and even my place on Broadway in Nashville, Casa Rosa – so, this opportunity allows me to lean in a bit more into that side of myself and think about how to really bring country music to life in this room. I think everyone will like what we’ve dreamed up. I’m really excited about this!”

In addition to the residency, Lambert recently launched her first cookbook, Y’all Eat Yet? Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin’ Kitchen. She also performed during CMA Fest in June, welcoming Avril Lavigne, Elle King and Leon Bridges to join her at various points during her performance.

Tony Yip, the chief strategy officer for Chinese audio streaming company Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), will step down on August 31, the company announced Monday (July 17). He plans to spend more time with his family overseas and pursue other personal interests, according to the press release. The company did not indicate who will replace Yip.

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Yip started at Tencent Music Entertainment in 2018 when the company’s four streaming brands — QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and WeSing — had 20 million subscribers. He led Tencent Music Entertainment to a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018 and a dual listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2022. As of March 31, Tencent Music Entertainment had more than 90 million subscribers — 2.3 times more than the year Yip joined — and revenue of RMB 28.3 billion ($4.1 billion), up about 49% from 2018.

“Tony’s professional expertise was instrumental to TME’s development by continuously refining our strategic focus, providing deep insights into the global online music and entertainment industry, supporting business development, capital markets and investment strategies, and establishing confidence in our Company among the investor community,” said TME executive chairman Cussion Pang in a statement.

Shares of TME declined 2.8% to $7.38 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday and are down 10.9% year to date. While the share price has recovered from an all-time low of $2.95 in March 2022 following restrictions placed on Tencent Music Entertainment and many other Chinese tech companies, it’s still more than 77% below the all-time high of $32.25 set in March 2021.

The company will report second-quarter earnings on August 15.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Abel Tesafaye (better known as The Weeknd) has a new collaboration, and this time it doesn’t involve music. The “Save Your Tears” singer partnered with Blue Bottle Coffee to create a collection inspired by his Ethiopian roots and family, which officially dropped Thursday (July 13) and is available to shop now.

Samra Origins, named after The Weeknd’s mother Samra, is a line featuring an Ethiopian blend of coffee and a limited-edition 16 oz. tumbler decorated with “Samra” in Amharic. To celebrate the release of the collection, the Grammy winner took to Instagram to show off the new collection with a string of photos that display the coffee blend and tumbler.

Keep reading to shop the new collection.

black bag filled with coffee beans
Samra Blend Vol. 1
$22

The Samra Blend Vol. 1 comes with whole beans that feature notes of raspberry, toffee and citrus blossom. The flavor profile was inspired by The Weeknd’s childhood flavor, resembling the coffee used in a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony called Buna Tetu, which he and his family performed regularly.

black tumbler that reads "Samra Origins"
Samra Origins MiiR Tumbler with Straw
$40

Sip your coffee, tea and more in this 16oz tumbler designed with a stainless steel interior to keep beverages warm or cold. The minimalist design is great for taking with you on the go or drinking your favorite blends at home.

For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best musician-owned wines, porthole drink infuser and the beset musician cookbooks.

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