Taylor Swift – “The Life of a Showgirl”: It’s no secret that so far she is the biggest artist of this century. It’s cool to see almost everyone in our industry reacting to the moment and making Taylor Swift the center of their product. Giveaways, concert tickets, listening parties, merch and Taylor-themed events have become the standard for any station wanting to fit in with this massive occasion or for that matter any time she does something worth talking about.
Over the last five days, stations have changed their logos, played the whole album and even flipped to all-Taylor! Her 12-track album has already broken numerous records, many previously held by her, but most impressively, it is the most pre-saved album in Spotify history and the most-streamed album in a single day less than 12 hours after its release. In the US, it sold 2.7 million copies on its first day, instantly making it the best-selling album of 2025. It marked Swift’s largest opening week ever, surpassing The Tortured Poets Department, and the second-largest sales week for any album, behind Adele’s 25 from 2015.
The average #1 song on Spotify gets 1.3-1.8 million streams per day on Spotify in the US. All 12 Taylor tracks occupied all the top spots, with the lead single and first cut “The Fate of Ophelia” getting 13+ million streams in the first day just in the US. That number has since fallen to a “mere” 6 million streams and all 12 tracks still lead the charts, with the least spun track, “Honey, still getting 2.9 million streams in the last 24 hours.
I expected her collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, the title track, to be the lead single, given its pre-release event status. But it could still happen, as this album appears easily capable of producing at least three hits, unlike The Tortured Poets Department, which despite its sales success didn’t lead to lasting radio hits. Midnights gave us “Anti-Hero”, “Lavender Haze” and “Karma”. The average person cannot name a single song off TTPD.
As time goes by, Swift just gets bigger and solidifies her position as the Madonna or Michael of our time. Max Martin and Shellback are two of the greatest producers in history, responsible for making many of the most popular songs of the past 25 years. Never forget that they are the ones who hold it all together and put their special touch on each track.
Last Friday on Liveline, we played the whole album in its entirety, with three tracks spread throughout each hour. Our first request of the night was for “The Life of a Showgirl”, followed by “Honey”, “Wood”, “Eldest Daughter” and “CANCELLED!”. We set up each song by playing the “track by track” recordings she released, telling the story of each cut.
With live listener phone calls and dozens of her superfans calling and texting in all night, it was a spectacular night of radio to remember. Connecting with the enthusiastic fans and actually hearing their excitement was unbeatable. The interactions put electricity into the night. For the people who ask, “what did you do for her album’s release?” or “why does being live matter so much?” this is why! It cannot be duplicated with canned voicetracks just talking about it or playing the songs. The news and Spotify have that covered. Live interaction is radio’s superpower magnet to build fans!
In the past two days, we’ve surprisingly had no requests for any of her new songs. Why that is or what it means, I’m not sure. But for now, that’s all there is to report.
Tate McRae – “TIT FOR TAT”: Pretend Taylor Swift does not exist for the duration of this paragraph. “TIT FOR TAT” is #2 on Spotify in the US (behind “Golden”) and #19 on Liveline last week. It’s her diss track to The Kid LAROI who she dated for a year until their recent breakup. He started the war by releasing “A COLD PLAY” which hasn’t become a US radio factor. Tate is on top right now with a very successful tour and run of hit songs. (The title phrase, by the way, goes back to the 15th century and is not specifically anatomical.)
It’s a really big song and another pop culture moment worth getting behind as their relationship feud steepens. Aside from Taylor, it’s quite arguably the only song with notable movement and significant audience passion this week. With “Revolving Door” still in the CHR airplay top 10, radio hasn’t yet caught up with the other activity, including a No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 debut, but look for that to change with adds at WHTZ (Z100) New York and KYLD (Wild 94.9) San Francisco this week. A great follow up to the still-popular “Sports Car.”
The album was available to buy / sell / stream and by mail delivery where many ordered multiples…different colored vinyl. It was readily available everywhere in the universe. Used to be radio was the leader everyone turned to. They played the hot artist first. Now it seems the exact opposite. Radio seems desperate trying to be relevant to her fanbase, , riding the coattails of the music that is already everywhere and anywhere. Maybe that’s why you had no requests for the next 2 days for anything on Taylors album. The rabid fanbase has it, in every color and everyone else is tired of the hype. It’s everywhere.
Okay, maybe after five days I am just a *little* less excited about hearing “The Fate of Ophelia” on four stations a day. I don’t know that I’d feel the need to request it either, and yet people still call for “Ordinary.” Overall, I am very happy to have this song, “Opalite,” and whatever else emerges from the album. Two years ago, the Eras Tour hype and the resurgence of “Cruel Summer” just pointed out how bad things were with the rest of pop music. I’m feeling pretty good about this fall.
Great numbers, beautiful numbers. The elephant in the room here is that hardly anyone who does not identify as a “Swiftie” seems to like (most of) the music on this album. A good number find it laughably poor. I would say that Swift fatigue has thoroughly set in, but to be honest her music has been pretty easy to avoid for those who don’t care for it, even if you all did try boosting “Fortnight” for way longer than it deserved. Instead it seems non-fanatics are simply baffled and a little annoyed that we’re all supposed to accept each and every release by this artist as some big event, especially when they prove to be so lackluster. Like, I have enjoyed-to-loved many of her songs but never really considered myself a “fan,” and from where I’m sitting this seems to be her third dud LP in a row? After all these years of being a pop megastar, her conception of what “pop” is and can be has barely budged an inch — perfect for post-2010s CHR, I guess! I cannot think of another star of that caliber whose imperial commercial period coincides with their least essential, least resonant, and worst work. I can’t help but feel like this was the inevitable result of several unfortunate large-scale industry/media shifts that were only just unfolding while she was still a teenager before kicking into full gear recently. Too bad.
“Tit for Tat” is pretty great in its way and I figure it has a good chance of being Tate’s biggest tune since “Greedy,” if not even bigger. It has the right vibe for the season, I’d say. Honestly, radio could have used hits like it the greater part of a decade ago — all the ingredients were floating around in some form or another, but I guess the vision, delivery, or something else weren’t quite there to bring it home in one package.
Why is “Folded” still not even on CHR’s radar? Here we have a quietly influential and long-underappreciated artist finally getting her due with what has to be one of the strongest compositions in rotation at any currents-based format this year and CHR doesn’t care to have anything to do with it? Or are you going to do the same 6-months-too-late thing you’ve done recently with “Mutt” after the callout, requests, etc. fall into place once a teeny number of stations in the format finally try it? Would it hurt so much to listen to the song and add it because it’s good and has momentum? Gotta make sure that momentum isn’t too apparent on Apple Music and YouTube, I guess!