US streams of Taylor Swift’s “august” rose by 39 percent during August 2021.
That increase was an early measurable sign of the song’s annual seasonal trend. “august” was released in July 2020, but listeners returned to it in the following August because its lyrics evoke late-summer romance, fading memories, and the feeling of a month slipping away. The title itself makes the track especially easy to associate with the calendar.
The resurgence was not driven solely by a new single release or a new album. Instead, streaming behavior, fan discussion, and social-media circulation helped turn the song into a recurring August tradition. Commentators compared this kind of calendar-based listening pattern with the way holiday songs return every winter.
The 39 percent figure refers to US streams in August 2021. It should not be confused with the much larger 277 percent jump in the song’s daily streams reported for August 2022. Those statistics measure different periods and use different comparisons, so they are not interchangeable.