As the world waits for Taylor Swift’s next installment in her six-album re-recording attempt, the superstar has her hands full. On Wednesday, May 18, Swift received an honorary degree from NYU and gave a commencement speech to a stadium of students, and earlier this week she scored another Billboard Hot 100 hit with “This Love (Taylor’s Version)”, an update of the 1989 track, which she shared earlier this month.
Meanwhile, his last re-recorded album, Red (Taylor’s version)reached the six-month mark, following its release on November 12, 2021. This means we now have a six-month head-to-head sample to compare the commercial performance of Swift’s landmark 2012 album Red and its re-recorded version, and see how each project is consumed on different platforms.
From its release to the most recent follow-up week, Red (Taylor’s version) earned 1.56 million equivalent album units, according to Luminate, while the original Red earned 351,000 equivalent album units during the same period. In its first week of release last November, Red (Taylor’s version) launched to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with 605,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week – meaning that Red (Taylor’s version) earned 72% more equivalent album units in its first week than the original Red won in the last six months.
Fearless (Taylor version)Swift’s re-recorded debut album, accomplished a similar feat over the original Without fear, earning more equivalent album units in its first week of release (291,000) than the 2008 original did in its first full year against the re-recorded album (242,000). It should be noted, however, that the 1.56 million units that Red (Taylor’s version) has totaled more than six months has already greatly exceeded the equivalent total of album units of Fearless (Taylor version) in its first year of release – 1 million – and did so in half the time to market.
Dig into the Red equivalent album unit totals, Red (Taylor’s version) achieved 712,000 pure album sales, compared to 14,000 sales of the 2012 release in the past six months. And Red (Taylor’s version) racked up 1.11 billion official US on-demand streams of songs from the album during that time, while the original earned 150.2 million in the same category.
Topping those streams is “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)”, the re-recorded fan favorite which, thanks in large part to the highly anticipated “10 Minute Version” featured on the Red (Taylor’s version) tracklist, topped the Hot 100 when the album was released last November. “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” is the most-streamed song from the re-recorded project, with 229.8 million official US on-demand streams in the past six months; in comparison, the most streamed song from the original Red during this period is “I Knew You Were Trouble”, one of the top 5 Hot 100 hits for Swift, with 30.8 million streams.
“All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” also received radio airplay after its release, peaking at No. 25 on the Adult Pop Airplay chart, while “Message in a Bottle,” an unreleased “From the Vault” track on Red (Taylor’s version), soared even higher, climbing to No. 10 on Adult Pop Airplay, No. 17 on Pop Airplay, and No. 29 on Radio Songs. A few days after the release of Red (Taylor’s version) Last November, iHeartRadio, the largest radio station owner in the United States, pledged to play re-recorded versions of Swift’s songs in the future.
And from a graphics point of view, Red (Taylor’s version) has charted in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 every week since its release – 26 weeks so far, including one week at No. 1 – while the original Red returned to No. 21 on the Billboard 200 for a week last November, its highest ranking since April 2013. Upon release of Red (Taylor’s version)Swift launched 26 songs on the Hot 100, a new record for the most simultaneous hits among women.
As stated earlier when comparing statistics between Red (Taylor’s version) and the original album, Swift’s latest release has garnered fan support for the re-recording effort, which was announced in 2019 following the acquisition of the master recordings of her first six studio albums by Ithaca Holdings from Scooter Braun that year. Additionally, streaming placement of the re-recorded project, along with the tracks “From The Vault” – which included new collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran and Chris Stapleton, as well as the 10-minute “All Too Well” – helped to arouse interest in Red (Taylor’s version).
While fans are still wondering which Swift album could be next to get the re-recording treatment, Swift will reflect on the standout track from Red (Taylor’s version) next month at the Tribeca Film Festival. After directing, writing, producing and co-starring in Too good: the short filmreleased alongside the album last November, Swift will screen and discuss the project at the film festival on June 11.