Taylor Swift Fans Spark Streaming Frenzy: Plays of Her Original Big Machine Albums Skyrocket Up to 430% After Singer Gives Surprising Green Light—Swifties React as Old Hits Make Stunning Comeback on Spotify! What Changed Taylor’s Mind, and How Will This Shake Up the Music Industry?

TAS Rights Management

Fans feel unleashed to finally re-consume Taylor Swift‘s original six Big Machine albums, now that they count as “Taylor’s versions,” again, too. Streaming and sales for the six-pack of Swift’s seminal titles surged, not unexpectedly, in the days following the Friday morning news that she had purchased her early catalog from Shamrock Holdings, rendering it no longer tainted and untouchable for true Swifties.

Luminate reports that preliminary data shows overall streaming for Swift’s entire catalog increased by 55.1% on Friday, to 30.64 million streams just in a single day, a substantial figure for an artist who has no music out. That 55.1% increase included all of Swift’s recorded music, including not just the original six Big Machine albums but everything she has put out subsequently, from 2019 forward.

Luminate did not break out increases by title. But Spotify did, and it shows just how much more dramatic the percentage gains were for the Big Machine albums, which Swift had previously urged fans not to consume, as she protested their ownership over the last six years.

Per Spotify, the biggest gainer was the O.G. version of “Speak Now,” which increased by more than 430% globally. In second place was her debut album, “Taylor Swift” (one of only two Big Machine titles for which she has not released a “Taylor’s Version” equivalent); that one saw a sizable 220% global jump. The third highest increase was for “Reputation,” which saw its global Spotify streams increase by nearly 160%.

Continuing on through her back catalog, the original version of “Fearless” saw a 160% increase, according to Spotify, followed by “Red” with a 150% uptick. “1989” saw the least increase in plays among the original six albums, with a still sizable Spotify streaming bump of more than 110%.

As far as overall consumption beyond the Spotify ecosystem, Luminate will be reporting its own figures for individual albums later on. All of the original six Swift albums are likely to show up on the Billboard 200 when that chart is revealed early next week.

In Luminate’s account of the jump Swift’s overall catalog experienced on Friday, the data reporting service says her album consumption units came in for the day at slightly above 31,000 units. That was in contrast to the 20,000 album consumption units Luminate says her catalog averaged per day in the U.S. in the preceding 12 days from May 18-29.

Prior to buying the six albums from Shamrock Holdings — which had purchased them from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca in 2020 — Swift had devalued the original Big Machine releases by re-recording four of the six titles as “Taylor’s Versions,” urging her fans to only stream or purchase the new editions. As the owner of the publishing for all of her own songs, she also did not approve film, TV or advertising sync usage for any of the original recordings, instead steering licensers to her new versions. But now music supervisors will be getting a crack at the original masters again, even as fans stream the originals without any personal guilt or ethical issues attached.