A price of $4.83 (AED17.8) may not seem exorbitant for a 13-track album released by a multiple Grammy award winner in the UAE or most western countries, but it has shattered the previous record in China by more than 16 percent.
The artist is Taylor Swift, and the album is her latest ‘Midnights’, which she released on midnight Eastern time on October 21.
According to a TechCrunch report, the album – which is the 10th released by the 32-year-old pop star – has been priced at 35 yuan ($4.83) in China and Tencent’s QQ Music, one of the largest music streaming platforms in the country has racked up sales of over 200,000 copies.
Mandarin pop music superstar Jay Chou has sold albums at 30 yuan per copy, but most other musicians are part of QQ packages.
For a long time, music piracy was rampant across online and offline media, so streaming platforms like QQ came up with a variety of perks to get people to foot the bill, said TechCrunch. A lot of its paid users are in effect signed up for bundle deals that give them access to other Tencent-affiliated products, such as video streaming, manga, or membership to Tencent-backed JD.com’s online mall.
The album is available for $11.99 on Swift’s own online store. It has become a huge hit, and such was the demand on the opening night itself, that several users reported Spotify crashing because of the increased traffic volume.
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