Taylor Swift‘s team have told streaming service executives that her new album Reputation won’t be available on their services for at least its first week of sales, Billboard and Bloomberg separately report. Physical retailers were reportedly told the album will be off streaming for at least two weeks, but the precise length of time is apparently still under negotiation. The album is out this Friday, November 10. (An inquiry to Swift’s publicist went unanswered Wednesday morning.)
Swift’s label, Big Machine, is reportedly predicting 2 million first-week sales for Reputation, a number significantly higher even than Swift’s previous #1 debuts. There is, according to Billboard, some doubt among industry analysts the label can hit that number, but if so, it won’t be for lack of trying. The heavy retail push includes a contest fans can enter by pre-ordering the album via UPS delivery, a pair of Target-exclusive CD/magazine packages with different artwork, and another album pre-order scheme encouraging fans to boost their chances of getting tickets to a yet-t0-be-announced concert tour by ordering as many as 13 copies.
Though Swift herself has so far avoided performances and interviews during the album rollout, that’s about to change with a run of high-profile bookings. She’s scheduled to appear on ABC’s Scandal Thursday (November 9), an iHeartRadio broadcast special Friday (November 10), and on Saturday Night Live (November 11).
