Taylor Swift has left Swifties on quite the online scavenger hunt on the release week of her highly-anticipated new album and they are loving it.
The 34-year-old megastar – who is releasing The Tortured Poets Department on Friday – has been leaving breadcrumbs for her diehard fans to follow leading up to her 11th studio release.
A superfan with the username @BlankSpaceProd took to X to create a ten post thread on the album teasing from Taylor beginning with her Instagram page.
It began: ‘1. Taylor Swift’s insta page became promo with a countdown until the #TSTTPD drop. It told us to do to threads, and we crashed the site. “ttpd” sparkles on threads.’
The second post was that Taylor had dropped an exclusive video on Spotify to promote the album.
Not to be forgotten there was a clue for Apple Music users as they found that ‘THIS’ was the word of the day and was found in the lyrics to her 2010 song Better Than Revenge from album Speak Now.
The user wrote that the fourth clue was: ‘SERPENTINE Someone found a barcode with the product label “serpentine.”
‘s e r p e n t i n e r e p u t a t i o n (Same # of letters) Serpentine is a lake in Hyde Park in London, which a city featured in a rep MV and featured on ttpd.’
Things get even more interesting as the fifth clue says: ‘A QR code was being painted in Chicago which, when scanned, takes you to a YouTube short that says this below. (This goes with a theory I’ve been posting about that I’ll share below) Also appears to be mysterious Roman numeral II in some Ts and an m.’
The link leads to a YouTube short which reads: ‘Error 321 – 1.’
The sixth clue was that fan club Taylor Nation invited Swifties to a library pop-up at famous outdoor mall The Grove in Los Angeles beginning on Tuesday which will go through Thursday and change every day.
The seventh clue was producer credits for The Tortured Poets Department as Taylor will have two solo songs on the upcoming album.
The eighth clue was one of the wildest clues as there is a listing for a fake Tortured Poets book on Amazon written by an author named Willow Bowery.
A superfan with the username @BlankSpaceProd took to X to create a ten post thread on the album teasing from Taylor beginning with her Instagram page.
It read: ‘A fake book of poetry We’re on that swiftie s*** again. No. This is not a Taylor book of poetry. It’s been on Amazon, and it’s just someone using Taylor for clout.’
The ninth was not really a clue as the user celebrated Ticketmaster and LiveNation being sued by the US Justice Department.
The tenth and final clue in the thread was: ‘Some of us are FULLY clowning for rep tv to drop, and this person theorized the Apple Music words are spelling GLITCH backwards.’
Many Swifties retweeted the thread on X as they praised the lengths Taylor went to in order to keep them entertained on album release week as one said: ‘Literally no one else does album promo like Tay.’
Another said: ‘there’s is no other artist that makes release weeks as funny and entertaining as taylor.’
A different Taylor fan remarked what a blast it was following all the goings on as they said: ‘It’s literally non stop at this point wtf this is so fun.’
A day prior the singings superstar got back to business Monday after spending part of the weekend at Coachella with her boyfriend Travis Kelce.
The hitmaker dressed in a sweater as she sat in front of a typewriter for a black and white video clip on social media.
Many Swifties retweeted the thread on X as they praised the lengths Taylor went to in order to keep them entertained on album release week as one said: ‘Literally no one else does album promo like Tay’.
‘Hey Spotify, happy release week of the Tortured Poets Department album,’ the artist said teasing the Friday April 19 release of her 11th album.
She reminded her legions of fans to ‘Make sure to pre-save the album and keep checking back for more updates from the Department.’
The Grammy winner has been offering little hints about the material in the upcoming LP.
Sunday, the superstar posted a snap featuring the album cover and writing, “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all.”
On April 8, as millions of people across North America enjoyed the solar eclipse, the singer took the opportunity to pen, “Crowd goes wild at her fingertips/Half moonshine, Full eclipse.”
On March 3 she penned, “Old habits die screaming…” and revealed an exclusive bonus song, The Black Dog was available on her website.
An accompanying graphic of Swift playing her guitar read ‘Old habits die hard.’
Another bonus number, The Albatross, was announced February 23, with a photo reading ‘Am I allowed to cry?’
On February 16, she shared news about a single called The Bolter, with a graphic reading ‘You don’t get to tell me about sad.’
Swift first announced the album at the 2024 Grammys, where she won awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year.
She attended the ceremonies wearing a white dress with black gloves, matching the album’s aesthetic.
At a concert in Australia, she told the audience the new work was ‘a lifeline’ for her.
‘It sort of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through life,’ she explained.
‘I’ve never had an album where I’ve needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets,’ she asserted.
Swift and her team have worked out deals with all the major streaming services for pre-orders so fans can have access to the new music the minute it drops. The album will also be available in an excusive clear vinyl at Target.
