Taylor Swift’s ’1989’ is shaping up as one of the pivotal albums of 2014, amid the ongoing panic over falling download sales within the industry. Billboard has the latest dispatch from the US, where ‘1989’ is now expected to sell more than 1m copies in its first week, with predictions having been gradually upgraded from 750,000 a fortnight ago. It would be the first million-sales first week for an album in the US since Swift’s own ‘Red’ two years ago. And, naturally, this will fire up the debate about the album being windowed from streaming services all over again. Heavy promotion from Apple on its iTunes Store is a big factor in the US success of ‘1989’ so far, as well as a deal with physical retailer Target. Also interesting, though, is news that the album is being sold for just $0.99 through Microsoft’s new Music Deals app, which launched last week in the US. That’s a big loss-leader, although with such a new app, the likely audience won’t be accounting for a large portion of the album’s sales.
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Tools: Kaiber
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