‘Midnights’: Taylor Swift Breaks Streaming Records

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Taylor Swift shattered Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music streaming records in less than 24 hours with “Midnights”, her 10th full-length studio album. Midnights was the biggest album debut for Spotify ever as it became the “Most Streamed Album in a Single Day.” In addition, Taylor eclipsed the record as the “Most Streamed Artist in a Single Day” in Spotify history.

Midnights also remarkably breaks the all-time record for “most single-day streams for an artist in Spotify history,” surpassing the record set by Bad Bunny earlier this year. Not to mention, this critically adored album captured 67 #1’s worldwide on iTunes and Apple Music with 98 #1’s worldwide.

Midnights also notably broke the record for the biggest pop album of all time on Apple Music by first-day streams and “Lavender Haze” Debuted #1 on Apple Music Top 100: Global. With two tracks from the album hitting #1, Taylor has earned 55 #1 hits on US iTunes singles, the most of any artist.

On Amazon Music, Taylor also received the most first day album streams globally of any artist in addition to the most Alexa requests ever. In addition, “Anti-Hero” is the #1 trending video on YouTube in the US.


Global Spotify Highlights:

  • Midnights breaks record for biggest album debut in Spotify History with 185M+ Streams.
  • Taylor Swift how holds the top 5 biggest streaming debuts in chart history.
  • All 13 tracks from the original version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ debut in the top 13.
  • Taylor Swift breaks the all-time record for most single day streams for an artist catalog in Spotify history.
  • “Anti-Hero” debuts at #1 with 17.39 million streams. Biggest chart debut in history.
  • “Lavender Haze” debuts at #2 with 16.4 million streams. Second biggest chart debut in history.
  • “Snow On the Beach” debuts at #3 with 15.03 million streams. Third biggest chart debut in history.
  • Biggest streaming debut for an all-female collaboration, surpassing previous record by over 5 million.
  • “Maroon” debuts at #4 with 14.4 million streams. Second biggest chart debut in history.
  • “You’re On Your Own, Kid” debuts at #5 with 12.84 million streams. Fifth biggest chart debut in history.

US Spotify Highlights:

  • Taylor Swift ‘Midnights’ breaks record for biggest album debut in US Spotify history, with 88M+ streams.
  • Taylor Swift now holds the top 4 biggest single day streaming peaks in US history.
  • “Anti-Hero” debuts at #1 with 7.786 million streams. Biggest single day streams in history.
  • “Lavender Haze” debuts at #2 with 7.644 million streams. Second biggest single day streams in history.
  • “Maroon” debuts at #3 with 6.8 million streams. Third biggest single day streams in history.
  • “Snow On the Beach” debuts at #4 with 6.719 million streams. Fourth biggest single day streams in history.

Apple/iTunes Highlights:

  • ‘Midnights’ reached #1 US Apple Music.
  • ‘Midnights’ reached #1 US iTunes.
  • “Lavender Haze” reached #1 US Apple Music.
  • “Lavender Haze” reached #1 global Apple Music.
  • “The Great War” reached #1 US iTunes.
  • “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” reached #1 US iTunes.
  • Taylor Swift has earned 55 #1 hits on US iTunes singles, the most of any artist.

On YouTube, Taylor launched the #TSAntiHeroCallenge, which was inspired by one of Taylor’s favorite songs off her new album Midnights – “Anti-Hero.” For the first time on YouTube, she’s asked fans to show their anti-heroic moments to the world and build upon the themes and artistry surrounding her new body of work. Click here to check it out.

Right out of the gate, Midnights earned perfect scores from The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Independent, and more. It has already gathered some of the most enthusiastic and unanimous praise of her career to date. Fans worldwide have embraced the album and in less than 12 hours, it became “the most-streamed album in a single day in Spotify history”.

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT Midnights

  • “5 Stars” – The Guardian, Alexis Petridis
    • “With its confident songwriting and understated synth-pop, Swift’s sophisticated 10th album indicates that she no longer feels she has to compete with her peers.” – The Guardian, Alexis Petridis
  • “5 Stars” – The Independent, Helen Brown
    • “Midnights will make you feel as though you’re sleeping over at her house while she spills secrets and settles scores into the night.” – The Independent, Helen Brown
  • “5 Stars” – Rolling Stone, Brittany Spanos
    • “Her tenth album returns to the dazzling synth-pop of records like ‘1989’ and ‘Reputation,’ with lyrics caught between a love story and a revenge plot” – Rolling Stone, Brittany Spanos
  • “‘Midnights’ heralds the return of a pop-music mastermind.” – Los Angeles Times, Mikael Wood
    • “4.5 Stars” – American Songwriter, Alex Hopper
  • “Taylor Swift Delivers Her Dreamiest and Most Introspective Album to Date with ‘Midnights’” – American Songwriter, Alex Hopper
  • “The superstar has delivered a focused, legacy-extending new project” – Jason Lipshutz
  • Billboard
  • “You’d be beyond cynical not to realize that there’s a real heart being exposed here, amid an adroitness for honest self-revelation that’s as canny as anything we’ve gotten out of a reigning superstar since John Lennon told us he didn’t believe in Beatles.” – Variety, Chris Willman
  • “Midnights is the mastermind’s ultimate power move” – Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield
  • “Atmospheric. Subtle. Introspective. Painful. Triumphant.” – HITS, Holly Gleason
  • “Taylor Swift releases the record of the year with ‘Midnights’” – Marie Claire, Bree Player
  • “Despite the restless-slumber concept that drifts through its songs, a serene acceptance lurks beneath the singer’s 10th studio album.” – Entertainment Weekly, Marc Hirsh
  • “The latest remarkable album in Swift’s current white-hot streak gently presents itself as a sort of greatest hits composed of songs you’ve never heard before.” – Rolling Stone UK, Mark Sutherland
  • “8/10” – Clash, Matthew Neale
    • “It may reasonably go on to be recognized as her best album to date, a reminder that magic prevails beyond the frustrations, fantasies and damnations she casts across her latest near-perfect body of work.” – Clash, Matthew Neale
  • “Swift uses Midnights as a way to rethink the sonic rhetoric of first-person storytelling and shake off habits that have served her artistically and commercially for more than a decade.” – NPR, Ann Powers
  • “Much like 1989 before it, this album will stand the test of time, and will be enjoyed increasingly in the years to come.” – AV Club, Saloni Gajjar
  • “4 Stars” – The Times, Will Hodgkinson
    • “Midnights appeals because, for all its modern touches, it is essentially an old-fashioned singer-songwriter album about human weakness.” – The Times, Will Hodgkinson
  • “A shimmering return to pure pop.” – NME, Hannah Mylrea
  • “The new album finds the superstar bringing together the best of Folklore with the best of what came before.” – Slate, Carl Wilson
  • “The songs are strong. Indeed, I’d go as far as to say that Swift has never written a bad song…” – The Telegraph, Neil McCormick
  • “She’s not only offering us her most personal reflections – a high bar in Swift’s world – but imparting them with poetic grace and an elevated level of storytelling.” – USA Today, Melissa Ruggieri
  • “Swift at her best, reminding you of her unparalleled ability to make any emotion feel universal.” – AP News, Elise Ryan
  • “Midnights is perhaps her most self-aware work to date (with some of her best writing to boot)…” – Paste, Ellen Johnson
  • “Midnights is Swift at her finest, using her quill/fountain/gel pens to write some of her most vulnerable lyrics, screaming at the top of her lungs even through whispers.” – Alternative Press, Ilana Kaplan
  • “Swift has, with Midnights, made a tangled, twisting tour de force…” – The Irish Times, Ed Power
  • “4 Stars” – Sydney Morning Herald, Giselle Au-Nhien
  • “There’s a self-discovery within this record that feels incredibly satisfying to bear witness to, and it doesn’t hurt that the songs, clever and eclectic, get more addictive with each listen.” – Sydney Morning Herald, Giselle Au-Nhien
  • “10/10” – Gigwise, Lucy Harbron
  • “The strongest reinvention we’ve seen from Taylor Swift in the most honest way.” – Gigwise, Lucy Harbron
  • “Midnights” is Taylor Swift’s best album. Midnights has the confessional, diaristic elements of Debut, Fearless, and Speak Now; it has the storytelling prowess of Folklore and Evermore; it has the sonic multiplicity of Red; it has the synth-laden bops of 1989 and Lover; and it has the no-fucks-given attitude of Reputation.” – Buzzfeed, Ryan Schocket
  • “Impressively finding yet another new way to reinvent herself as an artist, Taylor Swift has crafted an intoxicating concept album shimmering with honesty and creative experimentation.” – The Forty Five, Cordelia Lam
  • “Taylor Swift opens her long-awaited album Midnights by inviting listeners to “Meet me at midnight.” And goddamn it, we will be there, ma’am. We will be there with 13 bells on.” – Pedestrian, Matt Galea
  • “She is one of pop’s most distinctive vocal melodicists, able to sound conversational and highly tuneful at the same time, with a wonderfully deft use of tone and phrasing.” – Financial Times, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney
  • “As is Swift’s creative fingerprint, Midnights is as lyrically taut, literary and tongue-twisting as any of her projects.” – SPIN, Bobby Oliver
  • “Midnights is something brand new, while still ultimately encapsulating all that Taylor Swift is known for – songwriting that leaves her listener feel comforted, understood, and content, in the most beautiful way.” – Notion, Rachel Martin
  • “’Midnights’ Is an Instant Classic.” – Esquire, Alex Bilmes
  • “4 Stars” – Metro, David Bennun
  • “She’s back – and boy does she deliver…” – Metro, David Bennun
  • “4 Stars” – The i Newspaper, Kate Solomon
  • “On one of her most personally revealing albums yet, Taylor Swift invites us into a woozy, soft-focus world of self doubt and moonlit conversations. Midnights sounds and feels like a grown-up sequel to the synthy, ‘80s pop world of 1989; she is no longer the wide-eyed ingenue twirling onto the New York streets but a hardened adult with all the self-awareness (and liberal swearing) that goes with it.” – The i Newspaper, Kate Solomon
  • “4 Stars” – The Telegraph, Neil McCormick
  • “4.5 Stars” – The Sun, Matt Galea Pedestrian
  • “I’ve really come to admire and respect Taylor Swift’s approach, both to music and to celebrity.
  • After all the shit she’s copped, she’s decidedly removed herself from the minutia that comes with being a celeb and only engages with the public on her own terms: every few years through her albums.” – The Sun, Matt Galea Pedestrian
  • “4 Stars” – Toronto Star, Aisling Murphy
  • “‘Midnights’ might be the best album of Swift’s discography.” – Toronto Star, Aisling Murphy
  • 5 Stars” – Daily Star, James Cabooter
  • “Back to her confessional best, Taylor Swift’s 10th album Midnights is her crowning glory.” – Daily Star, James Cabooter
  • “In the loneliness of the dark, Taylor is just as exposed, flawed and anxious as the rest of us. You can’t help but wonder what else might be keeping her up at night — here’s hoping she’ll tell us about it soon.” – i-D, Alim Kheraj
  • “In keeping with the record’s theme – thirteen tales of individual sleepless nights – it’s arguably her most candid release to date.” – DIY Magazine, Ben Tipple
  • “This makes Midnights the closest thing to a concept album Taylor Swift has ever created, and also lends a dreamlike, transient quality to the record as a whole.” – Consequence of Sound, Mary Siroky
  • “Midnights might be her most relatable album yet, and it comes at a time where we all feel so disconnected. Politics has become farcical, the cost of living crisis means stress levels have never been higher, and we’re all healing from the fact we literally just came out of a pandemic. In a world of change, Taylor is my continuity, despite the fact she always surprises us.” – Stylist, Chloe Laws
  • “‘Midnights’ a return to sleek pop.” – The Australian, Andrew McMillen
  • “The album is like a confession uttered in the depths of night: It’s honest and authentic in a way that bares the soul.” – Harper’s Bazaar, Dani Maher

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