Taylor Swift’s new album, Red, sold more 1.2 million copies in its first week — the highest first-week sales total for an album in over a decade. She did it partly by answering a surprisingly complicated question: What’s the best way to sell an album?
There are so many ways to release your music these days. You can sell it at Amazon, iTunes, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks. You can release it to streaming sites like Spotify. You can go on tour.
Each artist chooses a mix of tools from this toolbox. And choosing the right mix can help an artist make money — something that’s hard to do in an era when it’s so easy to get free music.
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