Taylor Swift pulled a sweater over her knees. She was seated on a black leather couch in the lobby of Big Machine Records in Nashville, and the office was a bit chilly for the short, frilly skirt she wore.

Despite the brisk temperature, the room held distinctly warm memories for the 20-year-old singer. A handful of framed wall hangings provided a mini-retrospective of her career, including a multiplatinum award for her last album, 2008's "Fearless."

The Big Machine lobby was, in fact, a significant reminder of just how far she's traveled in her quick rise from unknown teen to global star.

When she was still a 16-year-old high school student, there was nothing on the walls in this room. Swift remembered sitting on the floor in the early summer of 2006, stuffing promotional CDs of her first single, "Tim McGraw," into envelopes destined for radio stations around the country.

"With every envelope that I would seal I would look at the address and the station on there and think, 'Please, please just listen to this one time,'" she recalled.

"I would say a little message to each envelope: 'Please, whoever gets this, please listen to this.' There's no promise when you're putting out your first single that people are even going to listen to it."

Not only did the single get heard, it opened the door to sales of more than 4 million copies of her self-titled debut album, awash in songs about broken hearts and high school social dramas.

Her sophomore set, "Fearless," did even better, selling 592,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, on its way to more than 6 million sales.

Three of the songs reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- a rare feat for a country artist -- as she commanded multiple magazine covers and even a 2009 MTV Video Music Award nomination and win.

When that VMA acceptance speech was infamously interrupted, the fiery Kanye West controversy supplanted the inspirational, dreams-really-do-come-true storyline in her career narrative.

Weeks after the VMA shocker, the Country Music Association presented Swift four awards, including entertainer of the year. In January, she won four more times at the Grammy Awards, with "Fearless" claiming the all-genre album-of-the-year trophy.

NO TIME LIKE 'NOW'

With every sector of the business jittery about the future of the album, the music industry's eyes and ears will be focused quite closely on Swift when Big Machine releases her third project, "Speak Now," on October 25.

Being heard is no longer an issue. Now the questions concern being heard at the right time and the volume with which the public might react.

An online leak forced Big Machine to rush-release the first single, "Mine," in August. It has since sold more than 1 million downloads. The title track, a quirky lyrical exercise that blends the dashed-wedding scenarios of "Runaway Bride" and "Friends in Low Places," debuted at No. 1 on iTunes. It sold more than 85,600 downloads on its first day of release, October 5.

Such leaks are a symptom of the anticipation surrounding the album. The label has shipped more than 2 million copies of the CD. No album has sold more than 1 million copies in its first week since Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" crossed that threshold in June 2008. As album sales continue to slide, a big debut week for Swift would be an encouraging sign.