As Swifties, a Taylor Swift album release week is a big deal for us. For the past few weeks, we’ve been analyzing social media posts, hunting for Easter eggs and not-so-patiently biding our time until her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, drops this Friday.
Swift announced The Tortured Poets Department after winning her 14th Grammy award in February. Since the album’s announcement, Swift unveiled four variants of The Tortured Poets Department during the most recent leg of The Eras Tour, with each variant album featuring a unique bonus track. Swift also announced on April 16 that the first music video for the new album will be released at 8 p.m. ET the day the album drops.
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The album variants aren’t the only way Swift is promoting her new record. She’s also teamed up with Apple Music to curate five playlists based on the “stages of heartbreak,” which have fans speculating about the content of the new album. Spotify announced on April 15 that it is teaming up with Swift to give lucky Swifties in Los Angeles an in-person library pop-up celebrating the album’s release.
On April 18, Swift announced that the first single will be the song Fortnight, which will feature Post Malone. Swift shared the news announcing the single on her social media platforms, where she also revealed that the music video for the song will be coming out at 8 p.m. ET on April 19. Additionally, a mysterious YouTube Short was posted to Taylor’s account, encouraging fans to join the “For a Fortnight Challenge.”
Here’s everything you need to know about listening to The Tortured Poets Department. We’ll update this story with any last-minute announcements and surprises that Swift undoubtedly has in store. For more, here’s how to stream The Eras Tour concert film and the best music streaming services of 2024.
How to stream Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department
You’ll be able to stream The Tortured Poets Department on your streaming service of choice. Both Spotify and Apple Music subscribers will be able to stream the standard songs on the album at 12 a.m. ET on April 19, 2024.
We don’t know specifically when the bonus tracks will land on streaming, but they’re currently available in CD and vinyl formats. Read below to learn more about each variant edition of the new album.
What to know about the alleged leak of The Tortured Poets Department
On April 18, just a day before the album was due to drop, the BBC reported that there had allegedly been a leak of Swift’s latest album. The leak has not been confirmed or denied by Swift’s camp, but fans online have encouraged one another not listen to the new album until the official release by Swift.
In addition, X (formerly Twitter) has banned searches for “Taylor Swift leak”, much like the platform did when AI-generated explicit images of Swift circulated earlier this year.
While some fans online claimed to have listened to the leak, we recommend that you hold out for the official release of the album. Not only can leaks spoil the fun of an album release, but clicking on links advertising a leaked copy of the album might not be as safe as you think. Bad actors are likely to capitalize off fans’ excitement for the album, and those links could potentially be dangerous viruses or explicit content.
Tracks and collaborators on The Tortured Poets Department
The Tortured Poets Department (affectionately called TTPD by fans) has 16 brand-new songs and four variant-specific bonus tracks. Post Malone and Florence and the Machine both appear on the album, and Swift teamed up with long-time friend Jack Antonoff and recent collaborator Aaron Dessner on her latest record.
This record has several solo writing credits for Swift. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me were both penned solely by the superstar.
The standard tracklist for the album is as follows:
1. Fortnight (featuring Post Malone)
2. The Tortured Poets Department
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
4. Down Bad
5. So Long, London
6. But Daddy I Love Him
7. Fresh Out the Slammer
8. Florida!!! (featuring Florence + The Machine)
9. Guilty as Sin?
10. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
12. Loml
13. I Can Do It with a Broken Heart
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
15. The Alchemy
16. Clara Bow
Confirmed bonus songs include The Bolter, The Albatross, The Black Dog and The Manuscript. These bonus tracks won’t be as easy to find as you would expect. Swift has spread each bonus track across separate CD and vinyl releases.
Where to find all the bonus songs for The Tortured Poets Department
There are four confirmed variant editions of TTPD, named after the bonus track each will include: The Bolter, The Albatross, The Black Dog and The Manuscript. Swift has encouraged fans to preorder these editions from her website, but the CD and vinyl versions of the album are also available at Target.
The majority of the variant editions are available as CDs, including The Bolter, The Albatross and The Black Dog. The fourth variant edition, named after the bonus song The Manuscript, is available as a CD and on vinyl in “phantom clear” or “ghost white” only at Target. Swift also held preorders for vinyl bundles of the other variant editions (The Bolter, The Albatross and The Black Dog) that included a deluxe CD and cassette, but those were only available until April 12.
In every social media post that Taylor Swift has made, she includes the same preorder link, which includes other retailers besides her website and Target, like Barnes and Noble. At Target, you can buy each CD individually for $14, and The Manuscript vinyl is $46. There is not currently a place where you can find all four of the bonus songs on the same CD.
When can I stream The Tortured Poets Department bonus songs?
Swift’s newest album The Tortured Poets Department will be released on Friday, April 19. She has also announced four separate variant editions of the album, each with one of the aforementioned new bonus songs tacked on to the end of the 16-song tracklist. Currently, these bonus songs are only available on CD (except for The Manuscript which is also available on vinyl). We don’t know when these bonus tracks will be released on streaming.
This type of release isn’t unusual for Swift. With Midnights, her last new album that wasn’t a rerecording, she released a bonus song named You’re Losing Me exclusively on a deluxe CD version of the album. Lucky fans at the May 2023 East Rutherford, New Jersey, Eras Tour show got the first chance to buy the CD and listen to the bonus song. The tune eventually made its way to streaming — six months later. We don’t know when the TTPD bonus songs will be available on streaming, but it likely won’t be for a little while.
In the meantime, you may hear clips of the bonus songs on TikTok as Swift recently agreed to allow some of her songs back on the app. Neither a representative for Universal Music Group or for Swift responded to CNET’s request for comment about when the bonus tracks will be available on streaming.
For more here’s how much grabbing all of the variants will cost you and the best headphones for 2024.
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