How Taylor Swift's Autographed CDs Made Folklore 2020's Bestseller
In 2020, Folklore became America's best-selling album with 1,276,000 copies sold — nearly double BTS's Map of the Soul: 7 at 670,000 — despite launching on July 24 with less than 24 hours of notice and being freely streamable on Spotify and Apple Music. Host Ben Beeri breaks down how Taylor Swift turned a CD into a collectible by personally autographing large quantities, shipping them to independent record stores, and offering multiple physical editions with unique artwork, star confetti, and handwritten note cards. The episode connects this move to broader shifts in the music industry, memorabilia collecting, and direct-to-consumer strategy, including the fallout from Scooter Braun acquiring her masters, the eventual "Taylor's Version" re-recordings, and the economic ripple effects of the Eras Tour on local businesses. As the host puts it, she "turned an album from something you consume into something you can own" — a play that supported struggling small record stores during COVID while setting up her next decade of releases.


