Swift Steals Britney's Download Record
Taylor Swift has shattered Britney Spears' first-week download record after fans raced to get hold of her new single TODAY WAS A FAIRYTALE.
The country music sensaTIon now holds the record for the best download debut by a female artist after the new song was picked up 325,000 times in the past week - 39,000 more than Spears' Womanizer in 2008.
Billboard chart compilers at Nielsen SoundScan have confirmed the tune from the singer's new film Valentine's Day will be Swift's first number one on the Digital Songs countdown; it will also debut at two on the Billboard Hot 100. Both charts will officially be released on Thursday (28Jan10).
Ke$ha's TiK ToK is the only song that stands in the way of a Swift number one debut. The dance track will claim a sixth successive week at the top.
The record for the biggest opening week belongs to the Black Eyed Peas, who debuted Boom Boom Pow in April 2009 with 465,000 downloads.
The track went on to spend 12 weeks at the top of the U.S. pop charts.
It has also been a good week for downloaded tracks performed at George Clooney's Hope For Haiti Now telethon on Friday night (22Jan10) - Billboard.com reports 334,000 downloads have been registered in less than two days of availability.
Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge and Rihanna's Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour) was the event's biggest hit with 131,000, while Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris' cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah comes in second.