Taylor Swift’s New Album Is Big Business. What It Means for Spotify, Target, and the Economy.

Taylor Swift fans listen to a song during an event for the new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ at the Astor Theatre in Melbourne. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)

Taylor Swift just dropped her 12th studio album—-and that means big business, if history is a guide.

Swift released The Life of a Showgirl early Friday. The record had already become the first album ever to exceed 5 million Spotify pre-saves, according to the music analytics platform Chartmetric.

Investors who think they can play the release cycle by loading up on stocks will probably end up disappointed.

Universal Music Group, which owns Swift’s record label, Republic Records, will get a cut of the streaming and publishing revenue. But the company, which filed for a U.S. listing in July, could be limited in how much it makes since Swift owns her master recordings. Universal Music Group stock dropped 1.2% in Amsterdam on Friday.

Retailer Target kept hundreds of stores open until midnight so that fans could get their hands on both standard and exclusive versions of the new CD—but shares were down 0.3% on Friday, as the S&P 500 ticked up 0.1%.

That doesn’t mean that The Life of a Showgirl is something the market can just ignore, though. The key question for investors is if Swift follows up the record with another mega-tour.

It’s hard to say just how much the Eras Tour, during which Swift played 149 shows across five continents, affected the broader economy. But most models suggest it did have an impact—economists at Japanese bank Nomura estimated that the first U.S. leg of the tour generated $5 billion worth of consumer spending, as fans splashed the cash on everything from tickets to hotel rooms.

With jobs numbers looking weak, the economy could do with that sort of boost again. If The Life of a Showgirl spawns a tour that’s anything like Eras, then it might be time for all of us to become secret Swifties.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com