Topline
Ahead of the release of “The Tortured Poets Department” this Friday, many of Taylor Swift’s promotional efforts have been backed by social media companies and streaming services looking to gain the attention of Swifties, as her dedicated fans decode clues to her new album.
Key Facts
Apple Music changed its bio on X, formerly known as Twitter, teasing Swifties they could decode one word per day until the album releases Friday based on clues hidden throughout the lyrics to her songs on the Apple Music platform (Fans have decoded four words so far: “Hereby conduct this post…”).
Previously, Apple Music unveiled playlists Swift curated, sorting her past songs into five categories based on the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance—which fans theorized might hint at the themes of her new album.
Swift has also partnered with the other major streaming service, Spotify, which organized a pop-up in Los Angeles featuring a poetry library that contains clues to the album.
The countdown prompts users to download Threads, which has also jumped on the Swift train by adorning posts that use Swift-related hashtags with a shimmer effect.
QR codes have been located at various locations in cities around the world—which bring users to YouTube videos that reveal letters, likely to be pieced together to form a clue.
Chief Critics
Some social media users have critiqued her largely corporate-sponsored album rollout. One user mocked the Spotify logo on the poems displayed at Swift’s Los Angeles pop-up, garnering 39,000 X likes, and another tweeted that the Spotify-backed promotion felt inauthentic for Swift.
Contra
The corporate-backed promotional efforts have entertained Swift’s fans and drawn large crowds. According to local news outlets, Los Angeles-based fans have endured hours-long waits in lines to get to experience the Spotify pop-up event, with some telling Fox 11 it made them more excited for the album. Spotify’s manager of label partnerships Taryn Lacroix told Elle the streamer wanted to make the pop-up “thoughtful and ornate to immerse fans in the world of TTPD.” The Chicago Sun-Times also reported a YouTube QR code placed in Chicago attracted large crowds of Swifties looking to decode the message.
Key Background
Swift has long been known for sending her fans on the hunt for easter eggs to decode clues about her upcoming music releases—but with “The Tortured Poets Department,” corporations appear to be doing much of the heavy lifting. For her last promotional cycle, Swift revealed the tracks to her then-upcoming album “Midnights” in a randomized order through posts she made on TikTok, and she partnered with Spotify to reveal lyrics on billboards around the world. For several of her re-recorded albums, including “Fearless,” “Red” and “1989,” all subtitled “(Taylor’s Version),” Swift teased fans by scrambling up the titles of the tracks on the albums considered to be lifted from her “vault”—or songs that didn’t make the cut when the original albums were released. Swift has also frequently hidden messages in her music videos and in the booklets that accompany her CDs.
News Peg
Swift’s eleventh studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” releases Friday. She announced the new release while accepting the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for “Midnights” in February (which also won Album of the Year later in the evening). Swift unveiled the tracklist the day after the Grammys, revealing that the album contains collaborations with Post Malone and Florence and the Machine.
Forbes Valuation
Forbes estimates Swift’s net worth to be $1.1 billion as of Wednesday. Her fortune includes an estimated $500 million based on her music catalog alone, and she’s estimated to have made another $500 million from royalties and touring, and $125 million in real estate. Swift became a billionaire in October 2023, largely thanks to her blockbuster Eras Tour.
Further Reading
Everything We Know About Taylor Swift’s New Album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ So Far (Billboard)
Spotify builds library pop-up in Los Angeles to promote Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets’ (USA Today)
How Taylor Swift turned fandom into a scavenger hunt of clues (TODAY)
