Taylor Swift Makes History With Folklore’s 12 Billion Streams

Some albums simply come out. Others become part of moments you remember forever.

How Folklore Joined Lover and Midnights in Spotify History

Taylor Swift’s Folklore recently passed 12 billion streams on Spotify, making her the first woman ever to have three albums reach that number. Now, Folklore joins Lover and Midnights in the 12-billion-stream club, putting Swift alongside Bad Bunny and The Weeknd as the artists with the most albums to hit this milestone.

The numbers are impressive. Still, for many fans, Folklore means something more personal than just statistics.

Why Folklore Was a Creative Turning Point That Changed Everything

Folklore was released as a complete surprise on July 24, 2020, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Swift created and recorded it quietly during quarantine, then released it with almost no warning. The album was a big creative shift for her: it was sparse, cinematic, and emotionally raw, surprising even her biggest fans. Songs like Cardigan, The 1, and Exile with Bon Iver showed that she was trying something new. The Grammy voters noticed too—Folklore won Album of the Year.

Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner accept the Album of the Year award for ‘Folklore’ during the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Comet Neowise, Haystack Rock, and the Taylor Swift Song That Still Hits Hard

That surprise release date is tied to a special memory for me.

On July 24, 2020, my family was on the Oregon Coast. The sky that night was extraordinary. Comet Neowise was visible to the naked eye, a rare sight that brought people outside and away from their screens. My wife and I decided to take a last-minute drive down US 101, past Cannon Beach, to a quiet part of the coast. Beach fires glowed in the distance. The outline of Haystack Rock stood out against the dark sky. Neowise moved slowly overhead.

The whole time, Folklore played through our car speakers.

Haystack Rock (Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash)

Track seven — Seven — brought me to tears. It still does. It remains, without question, my favorite Taylor Swift song ever recorded.

Folklore went on to spawn its sister album, Evermore, which was released in December 2020. Both cemented Swift's place in music history. Twelve billion streams later, it's clear the rest of the world felt something that night too.