Taylor Swift’s ‘Long Pond Studio Sessions’ Looks to Become First Record Store Day Exclusive to Debut in Top 10
Taylor Swift is looking at becoming the first artist to have an exclusive Record Store Day release enter the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart when the next results are reported this coming weekend. That’s because nearly all 75,000 domestic copies of her RSD-exclusive double-LP, “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” are believed to have sold through within a day of having gone on sale Saturday.
Even though the 75,000 copies of “Long Pond Studio Sessions” issued in the U.S. was almost four times as many copies as any RSD release has been issued with before, it was no surprise that it was a hot enough commodity to sell out in a day. The 115,000 copies that went out globally are said to be the only pressing the album will ever receive. While that might be a high quantity for anybody else, it’s worth remembering that Swift’s previous album, “Midnights,” sold about 400,000 copies in its first day out — and that was without the promise that it would never be available again.
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If the “Long Pond” album had come out during the previous chart period, whose results were just reported, and sold 75,000 copies during that frame, it would have been good for a No. 3 bow on the Billboard 200. Morgan Wallen and Metallica claimed the Nos. 1-2 spots on the latest chart with 166,000 and 146,000 album units, respectively, but the third-place finisher, SZA, was much further back in the pack with 66,000 album-equivalent units.
If “Long Pond Studio Sessions” does land in the top 10 for next week, it could have Swift claiming three albums in the top 10, if the two releases that are already in it maintain a solid hold. On the current chart, “Midnights” is at No. 4 with 60,000 units, and “Lover” just reentered the top 10 at No. 9 with 34,000, on the strength of renewed interest coming from her Eras Tour.
In a peculiarity, the music on “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” — a stripped-down, acoustic-in-studio rendering of the songs from the 2020 “Folklore” album, taken from a Disney+ special — has been available for more than two years for streaming and downloads, yet it has never registered on the charts as an album. That’s because the digital release of the material was bundled with the original “Folklore” as a deluxe edition of that album, so any streams that the “Long Pond” versions accumulated were attributed to “Folklore.”
However, Luminate confirms to Variety that the vinyl version of “Long Pond” — which stands on its own and is not bundled with the original album — has its own ISRC code, and thus will accumulate its own sales data. Barring any other complications, that would make the album chart-eligible.
It’s possible some stray copies are surviving unsold on store shelves somewhere, though that’s unlikely, given resale prices that immediately began topping $100 and even $200 over the weekend, for an item that sold for around $50 as part of the Record Store Day rollout. Even with some copies possibly unaccounted for in the data, though, the album should have a robust chart entry. Few other major releases came out this past weekend … and certainly none from Record Store Day that were produced in high enough quantities to threaten a bow in the top 10.
Should “Long Pond” indeed bow in the top 10, it’s believed it would be the first release to do so in the modern age as a vinyl-only release, with no CD or streaming help.
Republic Records did not extensively promote the release, which easily found its own audience through publicity about Record Store Day. The label did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the album’s chart prospects.
The album could also set a record for the highest-debuting record ever to make such a big debut and then immediately disappear, never to stand a chance at charting again, due to its strictly limited-edition status.
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