Taylor Swift's new album might be called The Life of a Showgirl, but her ability to whip her fans into a frenzy ahead of the announcement has one expert calling her a "marketing mastermind".
Swift announced the news of the album on the podcast hosted by her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs footballer Travis Kelce.
Kelce hosts the New Heights podcast with his brother, Jason Kelce, a former Philadelphia Eagles player.
"This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl," Swift said, brandishing a blurred vinyl copy of her new album while Jason roared as if she had scored a touchdown.
The short clip was posted to Instagram ahead of the full episode's release and racked up more than 168 million views in a day.
Graeme Hughes, a business and consumer expert at Griffith University, said Swift's announcement of her 12th album was "a brilliant display of marketing genius, proving once more why she's at the top of the music game".
First, the New Heights podcast posted that it would have a very special guest joining its next episode.
Then, Swift's social media kicked things up a notch by blatantly sharing that a new era was arriving imminently.
Finally, a countdown clock appeared on her website.
"Swifties were sent into a frenzy after the singer's official social media team, Taylor Nation, dropped a series of cryptic 'Easter eggs'," Dr Hughes told ABC News.
"A countdown clock, a change in social media profile pictures to a blurry orange and mint-green graphic, and a 12-photo carousel featuring Swift in orange outfits from her record-breaking Eras Tour all pointed to one thing: a new era."
Dr Hughes said Swift's "strategic" move to announce the new album on her partner's podcast, thereby blending her personal life with her professional career, "generated massive buzz across both music and sports media".
"Swift's playbook is a masterclass in modern marketing, using fan engagement, scarcity with limited-edition vinyl and cassettes, and a drip-feed of clues to build anticipation to a fever pitch," he said.
"It's a strategy that turns album releases into global events and solidifies her place as not just a musician, but a marketing mastermind."
Georgia Carroll, a fan culture researcher, said the countdown clock was a new strategy for Swift.
"That gets everybody staying online, everybody focused, and it also allows her to direct the traffic to her own channels," Dr Carroll told ABC News.
"Obviously, everyone will be watching New Heights and their channels for the podcast, but the countdown led to a pre-order link on her store, so obviously that was a very clever way to keep people on that page."
'Relationship-led' rollout
On Thursday, Swift revealed the album art and track list, which features a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, who opened for the Eras Tour.
The Life of a Showgirl track list:
- The Fate of Ophelia
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Opalite
- Father Figure
- Eldest Daughter
- Ruin The Friendship
- Actually Romantic
- Wi$h LiSt
- Wood
- CANCELLED!
- Honey
- The Life of a Showgirl (Feat. Sabrina Carpenter)
Before the pandemic, Swift traditionally released an album every two years, according to Dr Carroll.
"Obviously, we saw that shift during the pandemic with Folklore and Evermore, her surprise album drops," she said.
"Ever since then, it's been a bit more of, 'When is this going to happen? What are the clues? How are we hunting this down?'
"But I don't think anyone expected it to be released through the New Heights podcast, of all places."
While this album announcement might appear less glitzy than revealing the news on stage at the Grammys, Dr Carroll said the decision was just as savvy.
"It makes sense because it's a way that she can control her narrative and tell the story of the album in a way that she knows won't be twisted, while also revealing more of herself to her fans.
"We've never really seen her in conversation with her partner before.
"She's never really done podcast interviews before, and in recent years she hasn't really done that many interviews full stop."
Dr Carroll said the release of a Travis Kelce profile in GQ magazine, timed with Swift's album announcement, showed the couple were "maximising these opportunities".
In the article, Kelce spoke at length about how he and his girlfriend had a lot in common by both entertaining sold-out stadiums.
Dr Carroll said it had been a "very clever, relationship-led build-up to the album dropping".
'Glitter gel pen album'
The Life of a Showgirl will be Swift's 12th album and is due to be released on October 3.
In the past, Swift has categorised her songs into different categories, with fun, happy love songs being classified as "glitter gel pen songs".
"There's been a lot of glitter involved in this, so fans have been speculating that this is going to be a glitter gel pen album," Dr Carroll said.
While tracks are yet to be released, Dr Carroll believes the album announcement hints at Kelce playing a bigger part on the record.
"There's a lot of expectation that as much as it may also be musings on fame and life during the Era's tour, Travis was obviously a very big part of that," she said.
"I think the fact that we get him talking about the relationship in depth for the first real time today, and then her launching it in a podcast with his brother and giving them exclusivity — it's very much a big hint as to what we can expect.
Swift has traditionally left the subjects of her songs up to interpretation — but Dr Carroll argues this launch tells a different story.
"I think this rollout is telling us very clearly that any happy love song on this album is very much about Travis."
