Taylor announced details of
Speak Now via a July 20, 2010, live stream on
Ustream. After a leak, Big Machine Records released the lead single, “Mine”, to US country radio and onto digital download sites on August 4, 2010 (instead of August 13). Taylor then released the album cover art on August 18 — it depicts her with curly hair and red lipstick twirling in a deep purple gown. Starting from October 4, 2010, Taylor released one
Speak Now track onto the
iTunes Store each week as part of a three-week countdown campaign, starting with the title track “
Speak Now” (October 5), followed by “
Back to December” (October 12), and “
Mean” (October 19). On October 22,
Xfinity premiered a preview of “
The Story of Us“. Big Machine Records released both the standard and deluxe editions of
Speak Now on October 25, 2010.
To further promote the album, Taylor appeared on many magazine covers and press interviews and performed at various award shows. Her performances at awards shows included the
Country Music Association Awards and the
American Music Awards in 2010; the
Academy of Country Music Awards and again the
Country Music Association Awards in 2011. Taylor also appeared on many television shows and concert specials. She also gave private concerts to contest winners and played a semiprivate concert at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
After lead single “Mine”, five other singles supported
Speak Now. “Back to December” and “Mean” were respectively released to US country radio on November 15, 2010, and March 13, 2011. Both were top-ten chart hits in Canada (peaking at No. 7 and 10), and the former peaked at No. 6 on the US
Billboard Hot 100. “The Story of Us” was released to US pop radio on April 19, 2011. Two last singles, “
Sparks Fly” and “
Ours“, were released to US country radio on July 18 and December 5, 2011. Both “Sparks Fly” and “Ours” reached the top 20 on the US
Billboard Hot 100 and peaked atop the US
Hot Country Songs chart.
On November 23, 2010, Taylor announced the “
Speak Now World Tour“, which started in Singapore on February 9, 2011. The tour visited Asia and Europe before the North American leg started in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 27, 2011. Within two days of announcement, the tour sold 625,000 tickets. Taylor released
Speak Now World Tour: Live, a live album recorded from the tour, on November 21, 2011. In December 2011, she announced an extension of the tour to Australia and New Zealand, starting in March 2012. Upon its completion on March 18, 2012, the “Speak Now World Tour” covered 110 shows, visited 18 countries, and grossed $123.7 million.