Taylor Swift's 'Red' sells million in a week

    Never, ever, ever getting back together apparently has its benefits. Taylor Swift's new album “Red” sold a stunning 1.21 million copies last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving her the second-biggest opening week for a female artist since the company started counting sales.
    Swift, buoyed by the hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back  Together” and a massive publicity blitz, showed that blockbuster launches can still work. Not only does “Red” own the year's biggest opening week – doubling previous leader, Mumford and Sons' “Babel,” with 600,000 earlier this month – it is the biggest sales week in a decade, since Eminem's “The Eminem Show” debuted with 1.32 million sold in 2002. Britney Spears, with 1.32 million of “Oops!... I Did It Again” sold in its debut week in 2000, is the only female artist to outsell Swift, who now collects her third straight No. 1 album.
    The success of “Red,” released by indie label Big Machine, also continues the run of indie labels at the top of the album chart – following Mumford and Sons and last week's leader Jason Aldean.
     “This is a thrilling moment for artists signed to and promoted by independent music labels, and it’s happening during the most competitive season of the year,” Rich Bengloff, president of the American Association of Independent Music, said in a statement. “As change accelerates in the music marketplace, it has led to a rise in access for artists directly to their fans and enabled both artists and independent labels to control how their music is produced, distributed and marketed. These results are just the beginning.”