Pop stars Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift race for No. 1 on Billboard chart

NEW YORK – A cold war between American pop music titans – or at least their mobilising fan bases and record labels – turned into a digital arms race as Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish gunned for the No. 1 spot on the upcoming Billboard 200 (dated June 1) chart.

Swift, 34, has occupied the top of the Billboard 200 for four weeks with her blockbuster new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which has earned more than 3.6 million equivalent album sales (counting physical purchases, downloads and streams) following its launch on April 19.

But Eilish’s well-reviewed new album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, is challenging for No. 1 in its debut on May 17, as its 10 songs prove popular on streaming services like Spotify.

If only it were that simple.

Already, some impassioned followers of the two artistes had been stoking a rivalry, dating back to comments Eilish made in March about “some of the biggest artistes in the world” selling many vinyl versions of the same album, “which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money”.

The tactic, which Eilish called “wasteful” and damaging to the environment, has been widespread but used especially broadly – and effectively – by Swift.

Eilish, 22, said later that she had not meant to single out any artiste with her vinyl comments and added that she had participated in the practice too. Both singers’ work remains available in a variety of physical formats, though Eilish has stressed sustainability.

Still, when Swift pre-empted the release of Eilish’s album with three special digital editions of Tortured Poets, available for 24 hours and including previously unheard “first-draft phone memo” demos, many saw the move as pointed. Especially online, where pop fan allegiance can be a blood sport, the match-up became one to watch.

Eilish soon released her own new digital edition of Hit Me Hard And Soft, which added isolated vocal tracks for each song.

Such manoeuvres – in which listeners invested in the chart success of their favourites are incentivised to stream and buy more with bonus content – are popular and common, especially amid close contests for bragging rights, in the chess game that is the modern music business. But it did not end there.

On May 21, Swift released a remix of her hit Fortnight. On May 22, Eilish posted a new remix of L’Amour De Ma Vie.

And on May 23, the final day of Billboard’s tracking week, Eilish expanded her album again, releasing limited-edition versions of each song both slowed down and sped up.

Then, on May 23 evening, with six hours left in the sales window for the week, Swift made what seemed to be a final push, releasing three additional digital versions for sale on her website, each of which featured a new live track from her recent Eras Tour performances in Paris. The special editions were made available for one day only.

Midweek predictions, which predated some of the latest bonus releases, gave Swift the slight edge, with an estimated 350,000 equivalent units to Eilish’s 300,000, according to Hits magazine, an American music industry trade publication.

Billboard said the race “could be a close one”. Representatives for Eilish and Swift declined to comment. The final count will be revealed in the week of May 27. NYTIMES