Taylor Swift's 'folklore' breaks Apple Music 24-hour pop album stream record

Taylor Swift has broken a record for the highest number of streams for a pop album on Apple Music within its first 24 hours of availability, for an album that was announced by the artist less than 24 hours before its release.

As one of the biggest musical stars of the moment, Taylor Swift's releases are expected to be highly listened to by her fans. In details revealed by her Republic Records label, Swift's popularity is substantial enough to set records.

The album, "folklore," was released on Thursday and racked up a total of 35.47 million album streams on Apple Music 24 hours after being published, reports Deadline. Apple Music is not the only place the album set a record, as it achieved 79.4 million album streams on Spotify, a record for female artists.

It is thought that, when combined with the 1.3 million global sales within that same first 24 hours, the album will not only debut in the top spot on the Billboard albums chart, but it will be Swift's best album launch since 2019's "Lover" release.

The album was announced by Swift on Twitter, listing the 16 songs of the album on a moody black and white photograph of the artist walking through a forest. Swift poured "all my whims, dreams, fears, and musings" into the album, which was created during a summer interrupted by COVID-19, which put a stop to most of Swift's plans.

Records about Records

As there isn't a definitive track record of streaming records, it is hard to ascertain how it stacks up against other artists. While Swift's record is for a pop album, the records, as proclaimed by various parties, can easily be defined in other ways that allow them to be first within a narrow category.

Swift previously held a record for album streams on Apple Music with her "Reputation" album, but it was crushed by rapper Cardi B in 2018 with the album "Invasion of Privacy." Both albums' records were set over a week's worth of streams, rather than the first 24 hours.

For the shorter timeframe, Drake's fifth album "Scorpion" achieved more than 170 million streams in its first 24 hours on Apple Music in 2018. Drake's fourth album, "More Life" previously held that record of 89.9 million first-day streams on Apple Music.