"Gigaton" and its tracks on the charts

I just learned that, if someone purchases all eight versions of the Taylor Swift album, it doesn't count as eight units.  Per Billboard rules, it counts as four units.  (This is not a new rule, or anything specific to Swift.)  Aside from trying to prevent artists from gaming the system too much, I'm not sure exactly what the rationale for this rule is-- i.e., I don't know why they decided that each sale would count for one-half.  To be honest, as much as it annoys me when artists game the system in various ways (e.g., bundling albums with concert tickets or merch, which Billboard has tried to mitigate), this is an example that doesn't really bother me.  If someone buys eight copies at something close to list price, it should count as eight copies.  Billboard/Nielsen Soundscan has no idea why the person is buying multiple copies.  They could be Christmas presents for all they know.  (I don't know whether this rule also applies to in-store retail purchases.)  In 1991, the day the "Use Your Illusion" records were released, I was a junior in high school and we were only allowed to leave school at lunch on Thursdays.  I brought a note from my parents asking to let me go out at lunch on Tuesday that week.  I went to the local record store and bought several copies of each album in multiple formats, not all for myself, but for classmates who wanted them and weren't allowed out.  I bought at least five copies of each, as I recall.

Swift apparently sold 1.3 million units worldwide the first day.

The Juggler said:

Both RIvercross and Take the Long Way would do terrible on the radio. They are two of the lesser songs on the new album. I'm sorry but that's not an opinion. It is a fact.


Curious if you think Seven O'Clock would be a good single? Seems too long so I wonder if they would cut out the last minute and a half or something. 

Whoever Said would be a good one too. 

What works on the radio and what works in the context of an album are very different things.  Even if your stated opinion that "Take The Long Way" is one of the lesser songs on the album is true-- and I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with it-- it can also be true that it could work on the radio.

To cherry-pick one example, "The Girl Is Mine" is one of the lesser songs on Thriller, but it was still a smash radio hit.  I'm being cheeky-- although what I just said seems hard to argue with-- but it is not unusual for less well-regarded songs to be hit singles while lauded album tracks get no traction at radio, especially in the rock context.  Look at the chart histories of many of the most famous classic rock acts; the songs that were the biggest hits for them are often not the ones generally held up as their most classic songs.