‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Drops at Midnight. What to Know About Taylor Swift’s Latest Album

As Swifties, a Taylor Swift album release week is a big business for us. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been analyzing social media posts, hunting for Easter eggs, and not-so-patiently biding our time until his latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, drops this Friday.

Swift announced the Department of Tortured Poets after winning her 14th Grammy Award in February. Since the album’s announcement, Swift has revealed four variations of The Tortured Poets Department during the latest leg of The Eras Tour, with each album variation featuring a unique bonus track. Swift also announced on April 16 that the first music video from the new album would be released at 8 p.m. ET on the day of the album’s release.

Learn more: Apple Music vs Spotify: How to decide which is best for you

Album variants aren’t the only way Swift is promoting her new record. She also partnered with Apple Music to create five playlists based on the “stages of grief,” which inspire fans to speculate about the content of the new album. Spotify announcement on April 15, he’s teaming up with Swift to treat lucky Los Angeles Swifties to an in-person library pop-up celebrating the album’s release.

On April 18, Swift announced that the first single would be the song Fortnight, which will feature Post Malone. Swift shared the news by announcing the single on her social media platforms, where she also revealed that the song’s music video would be released at 8 p.m. ET on April 19. Additionally, a mysterious YouTube short was posted on Taylor’s account, encouraging fans. to join the “Fortnight Challenge”.

Here’s everything you need to know to listen to The Tortured Poets Department. We’ll update this story with any last-minute announcements and surprises that Swift undoubtedly has in store for us. 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 will be able to stream The Tortured Poets Department on the streaming service of your choice. Spotify and Apple Music subscribers will be able to stream standard songs from the album on 12 p.m. ET April 19, 2024.

We don’t know exactly when the bonus tracks will hit streaming, but they are currently available in CD and vinyl formats. Read below to learn more about each variant edition of the new album.

What you need to know about the tortured poets department’s alleged leak

On April 18, just a day before the album was due to be released, the BBC reported that Swift’s latest album had allegedly been leaked. The leak has not been confirmed or denied by Swift’s camp, but fans online have encouraged each other not to listen to the new album until after Swift’s official release.

Additionally, X (formerly Twitter) banned searches for “Taylor Swift leak,” much like the platform did when explicit AI-generated images of Swift circulated earlier this year.

While some fans online claim to have listened to the leak, we recommend waiting for the album’s official release. Not only can leaks spoil the fun of an album release, but clicking on links advertising a leaked copy of the album may not be as safe as you think. Bad actors are likely to capitalize on fans’ enthusiasm for the album, and these links could potentially be dangerous viruses or explicit content.

Tracks and collaborators from The Tortured Poets department

The Tortured Poets Department (affectionately called TTPD by fans) features 16 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 longtime friend Jack Antonoff and recent collaborator Aaron Dessner on her latest record.

This record features several solo writing credits for Swift. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me were both written solely by the superstar.

The standard tracklist for the album is as follows:

1. Fortnight (with Post Malone)
2. The Department of Tortured Poets
3. My boy only breaks his favorite toys
4. Down bad
5. Goodbye, London
6. But dad, I love him
7. Fresh out of Slammer
8. Florida!!! (with Florence + The Machine)
9. Guilty as sin?
ten. Who’s afraid of little old me?
11. I can fix it (not really I can)
12. Loml
13. I can do it with a broken heart
14. The smallest man who ever lived
15. Alchemy
16. Clara Arc

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 might expect. Swift split each bonus track onto separate CD and vinyl releases.

Where to find all bonus songs from the Department of Tortured Poets

There are four confirmed edition variants of TTPD, named after the bonus track, each will include: The Bolter, The Albatross, The Black Dog and The Manuscript. Swift encouraged fans to pre-order these editions on her website, but CD and vinyl versions of the album are also available at Target.

The majority of 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 pre-orders for vinyl bundles of the other variant editions (The Bolter, The Albatross and The Black Dog) which included a deluxe CD and cassette, but these were only available until April 12 .

In every post Taylor Swift makes on social media, she includes the same pre-order 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 costs $46. There is currently no place where you can find all four bonus songs on the same CD.

When can I stream The Tortured Poets Department bonus songs?

Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, will be released on Friday April 19. She also announced four distinct variants of the album, each with one of the aforementioned new bonus songs added at the end of the 16-song tracklist. Currently, these bonus songs are only available on CD (with the exception of The Manuscript which is also available on vinyl). We don’t know when these bonus tracks will be released for streaming.

This type of release is not unusual for Swift. With Midnights, her last new album which was not a re-recording, she released a bonus song called You’re Losing Me exclusively on a deluxe CD version of the album. Lucky fans at the Eras Tour show in East Rutherford, New Jersey in May 2023 had the first chance to purchase the CD and listen to the bonus song. The song was finally released for streaming – six months later. We don’t know when the TTPD bonus songs will be available to stream, but it probably won’t be for a while.

In the meantime, you can hear snippets of the bonus songs on TikTok, as Swift recently agreed to allow some of her songs to return to the app. Neither a representative for Universal Music Group nor Swift responded to CNET’s request for comment on when the bonus tracks will be available for streaming.

To find out more, here’s how much it will cost you to acquire all variants as well as the best headphones for 2024.