Welcome to the top of the charts — it’s been waiting for her.
Taylor Swift’s 1989 could sell more than 1.3 million copies by the end of Sunday, Billboard reports, which means the pop star could set the record for the biggest-ever album sales week by a female artist.
The current record-holder is Britney Spears, whose 2000 album, Oops! … I Did It Again, sold 1.319 million copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
But that’s not all: 1989 is expected to have the largest sales week for any album since 2002, when Eminem sold 1.322 million copies of The Eminem Show in its first week. That’s not too shabby considering how record sales hit a historic low this past August and that streaming services have been taking a bite out of digital sales. (Not that you’ll find Swift’s album on Spotify.)
Fans will find out if the former country star really did dethrone Spears with her “first documented, official pop album” when final sales figures are announced on Nov. 5. In the meantime, artists might want to take a look at Taylor Swift’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the future of the music industry — clearly her advice is worth following.
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com