TAYLOR AND TICKETMASTER: TO THE MAX

Taylor Swift is determined to sell a boatload of albums on debut week and beyond. To that end, she and her team have come up with a wicked-clever approach to setting the stage.

“Taylor Swift Tix,” her newly unveiled promo with Ticketmaster, requires you to set up a Ticketmaster account to get on a wait list for tickets. You can then pre-order the album, share her pitch on social media, buy a T-shirt in order to accumulate points that will move you up in the queue.

In essence, Swift’s strategy leaves open the option for a bundle at some point closer to release date without cannibalizing her Target exclusive or iTunes now.

On the surface, the whole thing is designed to minimize or eliminate those pesky bots. But ultimately, it’s a mechanism to boost revenue into the stratosphere. Will it work? How the hell do we know? But we’re on the way to finding out.

In a related story, Michael Rapino is rocking some rad Taylor Swift pajamas.