1. INSTITUTIONS RESEARCH
Promotion and Distribution
TaylorSwift’salbum‘1989’ was widelydistributed.Itwasdistributedtonearlyeverysingle country
inthe worldinmanydifferentformats.The CDwasdistributedtostandardmusicshopssuchas
HMV, whichalsosoldthe deluxe editionof the albumtobringmore people intothe shop,butthey
were alsodistributedtosupermarketssuchasTescoand Morrison’sso shopperswouldcome across
the album.However,the CDwasalso available forpeople whoprefertoshoponline andwas
available on websites suchasAmazonandeBay.
The standard and deluxe editionsof the albumwere alsoavailablefordigital download.Therefore,It
was available onprogramssuchas iTunes,Google PlayandAmazonMP3.Many people prefer
downloadingmusicasit meansthatbuyersget theiritemsinstantly.
The albumwas distributedinrelativelythe same wayinotherplacesaroundthe world.InAmerica,
for example,the albumwas availableoniTunesandAmazon,andthe supermarket‘Target’soldan
exclusivedeluxeeditionof the
albumwhichwould convince
fansto buy the album there.
In orderto promote the
album, Swiftandherrecord
label didmanythingstomake
sure people knew thatthe
albumwasbeingreleased.
Like many albumreleases,
Swiftandher recordlabel
releasedsome of the songs
fromthe albumas singles.So
far, three singleshave been
releasedfromthe album:
‘Shake Itoff’,‘BlankSpace’
and ‘Style’.ThankstoSwift’s
large fan base andher
decisiontogofor a more pop-
focusedalbum, resultinga
wideraudience,all threesingleshave beencritical andcommercial successes.Swiftalsoreleased
twopromotional singlesfromthe album.These were ‘OutOf the Woods’and‘Welcome ToNew
York’ andalthoughtheywere notofficial singles,theyperformedmoderatelyonthe charts.
As well asreleasingsingles,Swiftused social mediatopromote heralbum.She usedprogramssuch
as Facebook,Twitter,InstagramandYouTube tospreadthe word that heralbumwasbeingreleased
and to alsopromote hersinglesandgive fanshintsatsome lyrics/meaningsof some of hersongs.
Tayloruploadedthis
picture to manyof her
social mediapages,
whichshowsher
holdingthe target
exclusivedeluxe
edition.
2. She alsousedsocial mediatopromote herupcomingappearancesonthe radio,TV andher live
performances.Manyof the showsthat she signedupto appear on were verypopularwhichwould
allowa large audience toknowaboutheralbum.
Overall,Taylor’stransitionfromCountrytomainstreampopallowedhermusictoreceive more
airplay onthe radioand she alsogaineda wideraudience.The singlesthatshe releasedwere very
popheavyand for thatreasonwere commerciallysuccessfulandhelpedsolidifyhernew soundand
herpopularity.Whenthe albumwasfinallyreleased,it’sheavypromotionalloweditsellover1.2
millioncopiesinitsfirstweekof release,andtherefore debutingat#1 on the charts inmany
countriesanditwouldlaterbecome one of the bestsellingalbumsof the year.
