Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" Rides A Tsunami Of One Million Records Sold In First Week

When Taylor Swift released her latest album last week, I along with millions of others in the industry, fan clubs, and every other alternate business medium, knew it was going to be a success, but no one knew just how big. It is the fastest-selling new album in five years, so now now all have that answer they were seeking for months on end..

How did Taylor do it? According to her label boss, through a combination of clever, wide-net marketing, a key exclusive contract with Target, a blitz of high-profile media appearances and, perhaps most importantly, that unique bond with her fans, and possibly a "little" help from Kanye West..

"For the most part, Taylor hasn't been out in the marketplace for the past year," her Big Machine Label Group CEO Scott Borchetta told MTV News.

Even after the Kanye West incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Swift gave few interviews and mostly avoided walking the red carpet, even at awards shows where she was performing and winning trophies. Borchetta said that was all part of a plan to avoid the perpetual press cycle and allow fans a breather from reading chats with Swift when she didn't have new songs to talk about.

Man what a few year's difference, an awards show flub and Kanye West make to a fellow artists career, right??

“Speak Now” (Big Machine), the third release by Ms. Swift, sold 1,047,000 copies in the United States in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan; selling more than a million copies has become extremely rare as the market for recorded music has shrunk. The last album to sell a million copies in its first week was Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” in 2008 (with 1,006,000), and the opening sales for “Speak Now” were the most since 50 Cent’s album “The Massacre” had 1,141,000 in 2005. (According to Billboard, only 16 CDs have ever sold more than a million copies out of the gate.)

Seems that Taylor Swift has set the bar very high for others to follow including Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and others.

"THANKS KANYE, FOR ALL YOUR HELP", Taylor should be screaming through the phone at him!!