Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” dropped on October 3, and it seems to have taken over, making it nearly impossible to miss.
Starbucks joined the celebration in a big way, but its massive support may go beyond fandom, as the coffee giant could be looking to Taylor Swift’s devoted fan base to revive its business.
To commemorate the album’s release, Starbucks hosted “the largest global listening party” across multiple coffeehouses worldwide.
The company also transformed one of its Nashville locations into “The Life of a Showgirl” Starbies coffeehouse, offering an immersive experience featuring an exclusive vinyl pop-up record store, a photo booth, friendship bracelets, free beverages, and glittery, Taylor Swift-inspired drinks.
This isn’t the first time Starbucks has teamed up with Taylor Swift.
In 2021, the coffee giant collaborated with the megastar to celebrate the release of “Red (Taylor’s Version),” temporarily renaming her favorite drink, a grande caramel nonfat latte, as “Taylor’s Latte.”
Starbucks offered themed stickers and eGift Cards with song lyrics, while creating a curated Spotify playlist of her greatest hits.
Starbucks turns into “Starbies” to celebrate the release of Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Image source: Hobson/Getty Images
Taylor Swift’s celebrity power
Few celebrities have the massive influence Taylor Swift has achieved. Her star power is so strong that it has proven to move markets and bring millions of fans anywhere she wants.
Taylor Swift’s 21-month The Eras Tour, which ran from 2023 to 2024, sold over $2 billion in tickets across 149 shows in 51 cities and 21 countries.
That kind of cult following hasn’t gone unnoticed by retailers. Many brands have launched collaborations and promotions tied to “The Life of a Showgirl,” hoping to cash in on her stardom.
Target (TGT) partnered with Taylor Swift to extend store hours past midnight at 500 select Target stores on the album’s launch date so fans could buy three Target-exclusive CD editions and a vinyl version of the album.
This move comes as Target has been struggling with slowing sales. In the second quarter of 2025, net sales fell nearly 1% year over year, with comparable sales down 1.9% and traffic declining 1.3%.
A successful partnership with Taylor Swift could help reignite consumer interest and improve Target’s sales.
Related: Target makes huge deal for Taylor Swift partnership
Krispy Kreme (DNUT) created an entire lineup of doughnuts themed after “The Life of a Showgirl” and an exclusive $12 Spotlight Dozen deal, where customers could get a dozen for only $12 on the album’s release date.
Meanwhile, Baked by Melissa launched a 12-pack of Showgirl cupcakes, featuring two new limited-edition cupcakes inspired by “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Starbucks faces ongoing struggles
Starbucks (SBUX) is still undergoing significant business changes under its “Back to Starbucks” strategy, a turnaround plan designed to reverse declining sales by returning the coffee shop to its roots and creating a more personalized coffeehouse experience.
While these initiatives will take time to show results and regain lost customers, Starbucks continues to face challenges as it manages high restructuring costs and ongoing declines in sales and traffic.
In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, U.S. comparable sales fell 2%, driven by a 4% transaction drop.
To streamline operations and reduce expenses, Starbucks has already closed multiple locations and eliminated thousands of corporate roles.
This year, the company eliminated around 2,000 corporate positions and plans to reduce its footprint by 1%, taking its store count from 18,734 locations in the third quarter to about 18,300 by the end of September.
This restructuring will cost Starbucks approximately $1 billion, with 90% of the expenses coming from North America.
Meanwhile, its competitors are slowly winning over customers. In the first quarter of 2025, Dutch Bros. (BROS) reported a 13.4% increase in traffic, Scooter’s Coffee grew by 15.3%, and 7 Brew Coffee saw a 87.3% surge, according to Placer.ai.
In contrast, Starbucks experienced a nearly 1% decline in visits compared to the previous year.
Starbucks’ “The Life of a Showgirl” activations could be the coffee giant’s way of staying relevant by celebrating a prominent cultural moment while leveraging Taylor Swift’s massive influence to drive foot traffic and boost sales.
Although the success of this collaboration remains to be seen, “The Life of a Showgirl” became Spotify’s (SPOT) most-streamed album in a single day this year, within less than 11 hours after its release, according to Spotify’s website.
This stands as a testament to the potential of Starbucks’ timely efforts.
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