With the meticulously planned release of Taylor Swift's 12th album this Friday, the country singer-turned-pop star demonstrates again that she is as business savvy as she is musically adept.
From hints dropped during her last tour in 2024 to movie screenings this coming weekend to accompany the new album's release, "Taylor Swift has perfected marketing as narrative art," said Robin Landa, a professor who studies advertising and branding at Kean University.
"She doesn't simply release an album - she orchestrates a cultural phenomenon."
The massively hyped "The Life of a Showgirl" album was inspired by Swift's experiences during her record-breaking "Eras" concert tour, which coincided with the singer's romance with her now-fiance Travis Kelce, a three-time Super Bowl champion football star.
The 12-track record "comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life - and so that effervescence has come through," Swift herself promises.
That appears to signal a return to pop after her darker 11th album, "The Tortured Poets Department," last year.
Swift, 35, has said to expect "bangers" - high-energy, dance-friendly songs - in the ilk of her fan-favorite "22" and "Shake It Off," and created with the same Swedish production duo, Max Martin and Shellback.
To call "The Life of a Showgirl," which features a duet with rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter, eagerly anticipated is an understatement.
The album is the most pre-saved album ever on the Spotify streaming platform, breaking the record set last year by Swift's last album.
Accompanying the album, movie theaters in dozens of countries will host special screenings from Friday through Sunday of a music video, a making-of featurette, personal commentary by Swift about her songs, and a karaoke-style singalong.
The one-off movie event is estimated to gross between $30 million and $50 million, according to film industry website Deadline.
Swift, who first announced the album on Kelce's popular podcast last month, is "really taking ownership of the whole process, in every aspect of her music and her presentation to the public," said Toby Koenigsberg, a music professor at the University of Oregon.
Swift's "Eras" tour also spawned its own movie theater event, and underlined "the importance of having fan communities that interact in real life, not just on social media," he added.
One element that has long connected "Swifties" - the nickname for her die-hard fans - online is the frantic search for "easter eggs," or clues about Swift's upcoming projects scattered through her album booklets, music videos, concerts and social media posts.
Swifties noticed that, in a letter to her fans in May, Swift spelled the words "thiiiiiiiiiiiis" with 12 "i"s - taken by some to indicate her 12th album was imminent.
Once the first album images of "The Life of a Showgirl" were released, featuring cabaret-inspired outfits in orange and green tones, thrilled devotees rushed to social media to point out clues supposedly buried in Swift's 2022 music videos, as well as certain costumes from her latest tour.
"Taylor's Easter eggs are one of the most brilliant fan engagement tools in modern music," said Landa.
"This strategy creates free marketing through fan theories and social media speculation - essentially turning her audience into her promotional team."
So, is Swift a musician or a businesswoman?
"Sometimes people talk about her business acumen, which is really remarkable... but at the core of what she does is her songwriting," said Koenigsberg.
Swift is "able to consistently write good songs, year after year, album after album, in a way that almost nobody else can."
