UPDATE: A person with knowledge of Swift’s Spotify streaming data contested the claim her listenership decreased, saying it increased in the four days following her endorsement.
Taylor Swift’s streaming stats are down bad.
Swift, since endorsing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for president, has lost more than 2 million Spotify listeners, according to data shared by Chartmetric, a music streaming analytics company.
Here are the key figures: When Swift publicly endorsed Harris in an Instagram post on Sept. 10, 94 million unique Spotify listeners had streamed at least one of her songs in the past month. A little more than a fortnight later, on Sept. 27, Swift’s monthly unique listeners had dropped to 91.9 million, per Chartmetric.
And it’s worth pointing out Swift was already in a (relative) slump before she came out against Trump.
For reference, Swift had 95.9 million Spotify listeners in the 28 days — which is the time frame Chartmetric and Spotify use to measure a month — leading up to Aug. 27. Her endorsement of the Democratic ticket, minutes after the Trump-Harris presidential debate wrapped up on Sept. 10, hasn’t helped reverse her recent downtrend.
Chartmetric’s music data looks at global users, so it’s unclear how many of those lost listeners came from the U.S. Spotify, according to its most recent earnings report, had 246 million paying customers, and 626 million monthly users worldwide.
And while we’re looking at her streaming data, her YouTube stats had a cruel end to the summer, too.
The number of people viewing Swift’s YouTube videos in the U.S. dropped nearly 10% post-Harris endorsement, according to Chartmetric’s data. (Swift had 102.4 million people watch her videos on YouTube in the month leading up to her endorsement; that figure dropped to 92.5 million monthly viewers by Sept. 27.) Although it’s worth noting volatility on YouTube given the recent blocking of music videos by popular artists, and the fact that YouTube is far from the primary place people go to listen to music.
If you missed it, Swift officially backed Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in an Instagram post on Sept. 10.
“I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said. “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
Swift’s post — which had its comments section turned off — has been “liked” 11 million times to date. The “anti-hero” singer has 283 million followers on Instagram.
Swift’s endorsement, which linked to a voter registration site, drove over 338,000 views to the voter registration page.
Trump, a few days later, didn’t mince words in response.
“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” the Republican nominee posted on Truth Social.
Swift’s backing of Harris and Walz came after she received some needling from the media for her political silence in 2024.
In early September, Glamour wondered Will Taylor Swift Endorse Kamala Harris for President? Vanity Fair had asked the same question in July, right after Harris was named as President Joe Biden’s replacement.
The world, according to Vanity Fair, was waiting “with bated breath to see if Swift will throw her considerable cultural weight behind Harris, the newly anointed great hope of the Democratic Party.”
Up until her Instagram post made it official, Swift’s fans likely had an idea of which way the pop star was leaning this election. Swift, in her 2020 “Miss Americana” documentary, told her dad that she regretted not opposing Trump in 2016.
“I need to be on the right side of history,” Swift said, when explaining her decision to be more politically vocal during the 2018 midterms.
In 2024, she’s made it clear she’ll leverage her reputation to support the candidates she believes in — even if it eats away at her streaming dominance.
