Red (Taylor Swift album)

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Red is the fourth studio album by American singer Taylor Swift. It was released on October 22, 2012 through Big Machine Records, as the follow-up to her commercially successful 2010 album Speak Now. It was announced through Swift's live webchat on August 13, 2012, in which she revealed the album title and album cover, and answered fan questions. Four promotional singles were released in the month leading up to the album release, three of which debuted inside the top ten of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The album features collaborations with new producers and guest artists such as Gary Lightbody and Ed Sheeran, and sees Swift experimenting with new musical genres.
The album's lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", was a worldwide commercial success, topping the iTunes charts all over the world and selling 623,000 copies in the first week, becoming Swift's first ever Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper after vaulting from 72 to number one and staying atop for three weeks. The second single, "Begin Again", was released on October 1. "I Knew You Were Trouble" was released as the third official single (promoted, like "Begin Again", from promotional single status) on November 27, 2012, becoming one of Swift's highest charting singles in both the UK and the US. "22" will be released as the fourth single from the album in March 2013.
Red has also spawned three other promotional singles, all of which reached top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Red has been mostly acclaimed by music critics, who praised Swift's versatility as a musician and enjoyed her experiments with new music genres. Red sold 1,208,000 copies in its first week in the U.S., debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, the second-highest debut for a female artist, behind Oops!... I Did It Again by Britney Spears.  Red is also Swift's first chart-topper in the U.K., and also topped the album charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. The album sold 1.89 million copies in its first three weeks, surpassing One Direction's Up All Night as the second biggest-selling album of the year in the U.S

 With Red spending its sixth week atop Billboard 200, Swift became the first artist in 43 years since The Beatles to log six weeks atop Billboard 200 with three consecutive studio albums, she also became the first artist since Garth Brooks to top Billboard 200 on the week before Christmas thrice.

Red was a commercial success. In the United States, Red became the fastest-selling album in over a decade after selling 1,208,000 copies in its first week, and earned Swift her third number one album on the Billboard 200 and fifth top ten album.^[49][50] Red has the second highest first week sum by a female artist, only behind Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again which opened with 1.3 million units.  "Red" has the biggest sales week in 2012 which outsold the top 52 albums in the Billboard 200 during its debut week. Red has also the biggest one week sales for a country album beating Garth Brooks' Double Live which sold 1,085,000 copies in 1998. She is also the first female artist, first country artist, and fourth artist to achieve two or more albums with first week sales of more than a million. She is also the second artist, after the Backstreet Boys to see the sales increase from its first million-selling first-week to its second. Red sold 465,000 digital copies in its first week in the US, which is the second biggest after Lady Gaga's Born This Way, which sold more including around 400,000 which were sold at 99 cents by Amazon. She is also the third female country artist to notch three number one albums. It sold around 1.459 million copies worldwide in its first week of sales. In its second week on the Billboard 200, the album remained at number one and sold 344,000 copies (down 72%). In its third week the album remained at number one and sold 196,000 (down 43%) which brought its sales to 1.749 million copies during its first three weeks of release and was easily ranked third biggest selling album of 2012 behind Adele's 21 and One Direction's Up All Night. The album was dethroned by One Direction's Take Me Home on its fourth week and fell to number two spot selling 145,000. On its fifth week of release, the album stayed at number two (having been blocked by Rihanna's Unapologetic which sold 238,000 copies that time) selling 185,000 (up 25%) in its fifth week The album was steady at number two until its sixth week selling 136,000 copies., all the while maintaining the number two spot. On its seventh week, Red climbs back to number one on the Billboard 200 selling 167,000 and with that, Swift is now tied with Jay-Z and Whitney Houston for fourth most-weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking in 1991. Swift held the Billboard 200 for its fifth non-consecutive weeks on its eighth week of release selling 208,000 copies and garnered the greatest gainer in that week. On it's ninth week the album reigned on top of the Billboard 200 for a sixth non-consecutive week at number one moving an additional 276,000 (up 32%), thus making Swift as the first artist since The Beatles way back in 1969 to log six or more weeks at number one with three consecutive studio albums. She achieves the feat with Red, which tops The Billboard 200 for the sixth week. It follows Fearless (eleven weeks) and Speak Now (six weeks), thus making Swift as the female and solo artist to do so. Also, this is the third time that Swift has had the number one album in the last week before Christmas, which is traditionally the most competitive week of the year. She also achieved the feat with Fearless in 2008 and Speak Now in 2010. Since 1991, only one other artist has had the number one album in the last week before Christmas three times. Garth Brooks scored with The Hits in 1994, Sevens in 1997 and Double Live in 1998.^[63] Red spent its seventh non-consecutive week at number one in the sales week ending Dec. 30 2012, selling 241,000 (down 12%). This gave Swift a total of 24 weeks atop the Billboard 200 throughout her career, tying her with Adele as the woman with most weeks at No. 1 since SoundScan began powering the Billboard 200 in May, 1991. Red finished 2012 as the second biggest album despite being out for only two months, selling 3.11 million. It makes the fourth time she has an album ranked in the year's top three sellers.
Red also received commercial success outside the United States. In the United Kingdom, Swift garnered her first number one album with Red with sales of 61,000 copies on its opening week. In Canada, Red ranks Swift's third number one album as well selling 93,000 copies on its debut week and has easily crossed the Platinum certification in that country. With that sales, Red became the biggest one week sales in Canada since Michael Bublé's Christmas moved 107,000 copies last Christmas season of 2011 and the biggest first week sales since 2008. To date, Red has been certified triple platinum by Music Canada with shipments exceeding 240,000 copies. In Australia, the album debuted at number one and spent a total of three consecutive weeks at the top, becoming Swift's longest running number one album in Australia; Red has already been certified double platinum by the ARIA with shipments of 140,000 copies. In New Zealand, the album also became Swift's third number one album, and has been certified platinum by the RIANZ. Worldwide, Swift set a new worldwide iTunes record for highest ever first-week album sales with 566,000 copies sold digitally around the globe.
Red has been certified 4X Platinum in the U.S. for sales in excess of 4 million albums, and the disc's worldwide sales total is now past 5.4 million.