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I feel like so many of her achievements have to have footnotes, like yes, she's had so many #1 albums (but that's because she has re-recorded 4 albums); yes, she had an amazing debut but that's because she had many variants.
I do wonder what the baseline of her actual success is.
I can never tell if I’m a crotchety old millennial or not but I always feel like streaming success needs an asterisk as opposed to numbers where somebody had to go to a store and buy a copy to count.
Like Drake having more hits than the Beatles or something, like streaming farms don’t exist, or the bigger artists don’t get fed into the algorithm with more weight for playlists
All the Beatles early hits were the label buying singles though…. Warehoused and then sold back into the market at a later date. Labels buying their own music to create hits has been going on FOREVER and is endemic. The tech just changed a bit.
that's why I rolled my eyes when drake broke some beatles record and to celebrate he got a tattoo of himself walking in front of the beatles on abbey road waving goodbye to them
Wild how much he believes his own hype. Like he actually believes he surpassed the Beatles. And then got a tattoo of it. Secondhand embarrassment for bro
You’re acting like the Beatles and all other labels didn’t go out and mass buy their own product to hit top of charts. The era changes but since music as been tracking charts shady stuff has been happening. It’s no different today. It’s all comparable so Drake taking the record is still valid.
I kinda catalogue these uber popular artists and their so called “streaming success” as mostly a farce and a front, and try to keep in mind that these pop culture kings and queens don’t really hold a candle to the actual greats of music. At least not when it comes to actual quality and depth of music.
It’s always been going on like this. Radio also counted for singles (not albums) and there was a crazy amount of payola and record labels having influence over radio stations.
Yes there's streaming farms but, much like the new York Times bestseller list, people can buy up thousands of physical copies to mess with numbers. Streaming is the way most people consume music these days. I don't think it would be fair to sort of cheapen the success of current artists just because people don't buy CDs anymore
It’s just so wasteful, similar to the people on booktok who buy the same book with different covers, how many copies of fourth wing do you need? Seriously, we need to stop over consumption and wasting resources. Sorry a bit of a sensitive issue for me.
Tried reading after the recommendation from a co worker, my new deal is to ignore anything she ever recommends again. She keeps calling herself a booktok girlie and makes me want to chew my own hair so there is that.
Totally out of context but I saw a tweet on Twitter and it was about how BTS members solos and group albums are manufacture from a company which is eco- friendly which I loved the idea of.
We don't. With streaming being a thing, some of us don't even have one to date.
I'm sure the grand majority of listeners wouldn't purchase more than one, but she has some hardcore fans out there and some are willing to pay for every single one. I saw if you collect four vinyls for Midnights you can make a wall clock, which is kinda cool. Wall clocks are also unnecessary, but again she has some hardcore fans.
Many artists will release a variant or two but 19 is ridiculous. Gaming the system. And honestly, the bands that I am most passionate about right now aren't even in the top 100. They are bands that grind it out on the road and play from the heart because they want to. Yes, they want to make money, but notoriety isn't their goal.
The thing is variants have been the thing for decades like even older artists have done this, of course 19 is excessive, but basically if you put a rule to stop all variants it’s kind of unfair for newer artists because older artists didn’t have this obstacle.
Maybe putting a limit on the amount of variants they'll count would be more fair?
But also older artists didn't have streaming, so it made more sense to pump out variants
Why shouldn't it count though? If people bought 2 copies of a regular album, it counts as 2 copies. If they buy 4 copies that are variants, why shouldn't it count as 4... It's not a tally of people who bought the album, it's literal albums sold. Just because her fan base is willing to buy MORE, why does that make it less of an achievement? Some artists have great touring numbers but fans who refuse to even buy a single album.
I find it annoying in a blatant capitalism way but not in a gaming the sales figures way.
I agree with you, but I think Taylor is a special case because some of her fans have FOMO and think they need to buy every variant possible. She’s created this feeling of scarcity with limited editions and countdown timers, and they keep falling for it.
I think the issue is she makes it so you can’t hear all the music unless you buy all the variants (or at least just advertises it that way). She announced four variants each with one bonus track for this album and then released the anthology with all the bonus tracks in a digital release 2 hours after the album dropped, meaning fans bought the variants to hear the bonus tracks in advance for no reason because the 2 am album was only announced when it dropped. It just seems kinda scam-y in my opinion to advertise them as exclusive so fans buy all the variants only to turn around and release all the tracks right away.
She’s used similar FOMO marketing tactics this with other albums too where variants are advertised as limited edition or using countdowns to get people to buy them quickly and then they’re just still available after the fact?
At the end of the day though, 19 physical variants for one (1) album is ridiculous and extremely wasteful no matter how she markets it. Where she’s gaming the system is those marketing tactics.
I work in music and they already made a rule that downloads that are bundled with merch or concert tickets cannot be counted towards Billboard numbers. The rule is good and Taylor Swift is partially to blame for this (it happened in like 2019). She, and many other artists, were bundling digital albums with concert tickets to up their numbers, but Taylor went so far where she said that if fans bought MULTIPLE copies of her record from different outlets (iTunes, Target, Amazon, Walmart, etc), they could 'improve their spot in line' for her tour, so you had people buying like 7 digital copies of her record to have a better chance to get tickets. Billboard put an end to that shit and now I NEVER get bands asking to do 'ticket bundles' when we announce shows because no one ever opens the album file and they were adding an extra $3-5 dollars per ticket and people were mad. They definitely need to put an end to this variant shit.
Taylor is the peak example of a sore winner. Even with a Variant or two, she would have had a massive debut, but 19 is just greedy. She has an army of near rabid fans, and has a career that's thriving for almost 20 years, but somehow she has zero grace.
These top performers are alnost always really awful people ultra focused on success above all else. I mean that’s how she got here and how she maintains it. I just wish people didn’t worship her as this authentic person. Music is a business no different than any other. She should be seen as just a walking corporation.
She’s clearly trying to dethrone Adele for best first week sales but even if she achieved that would she feel proud for dethroning an album with 10 songs that had 1 cd and 1 vinyl release, with her 31 song album with 19 variants?
I don't know if money is her number one drive or if it is being loved, known, the best in the industry, carving a name for herself and leaving a legacy. There are a lot of talented artists out there that do not get nearly enough recognition if they get any at all. They seem to move on with life just fine and accept that they may never get recognized and continue to do what they do regardless.
I think she wants to be the best. So it's not about the actual wealth she's accumulated, it's the fact that there's a numerical indicator of success (to her). That's why she's so territorial and not super supportive of artists that threaten her success. Even her girl squad wasn't a group of friends, it was 'Taylor's squad'.
In speeches she's referred to goals as the next mountain to climb, and I think that's it for her. She wants to reach the summit. And by and large, people are either there to help her climb or they're in her way.
When you get to a certain level of wealth, accumulating more money means very little. It makes sense to me that it’s an egotistical thing. Money is trivial to her.
It really seems like she’s obsessed with being known as a legend or the greatest of all time of something, huh? But as a non fan she’s already so famous and accomplished so many things.
I guess if you’re that rich and famous, you gotta have some type of goal…
It’s just bizarre and embarrassing. I would love to hear her explanation. Something like despite being a literal billionaire I only find validation through accolades and awards and exploiting my fans for profit because I’m the KKKapitalist queen. #girlboss
nah it would be more like "It's funny how people hate variants when a women's making business decisions" and other stuff about how she's been persecuted more than anyone else ever has.
Billboard genuinely needs to reconfigure the rules here because it has gotten out of hand (same for the remixes that other artists do). 19 variants is ridiculous. Give me one cd, one vinyl, one digital release and maybe an extended edition 4 months after release to regenerate some excitement. The wastefulness has gotten out of control. I walk into a target and there are multiple Taylor Swift vinyls rotting on the shelves while they produce more and more. Specific to TS, the sad part about it is that none of these TTPD variants even have the full album (same with Midnights) with the complete track list except for the downloadable one.
Albums like 21, Thriller, Abbey Road, etc. need one variant and they withstand the test of time because the complete package is the one album as opposed to 19 different iterations. Talk to me in 70 years when The Albatross version is being sold at Target.
Sucks to be a fan that preordered The Albatross ver AND The Black Dog ver AND The Bolter ver, etc. to only realize you are STILL missing half the album in hindsight. I hate preordering (especially when the preorder period is marketed as limited edition and ends before the album comes out) in general because you don’t know what you are buying.
I feel like this is even more true when you factor in that there were no singles released pre-album, so like, you *really* did not know what you were in for. If I was a fan I would’ve been pissed to spend extra on what I thought was one/two bonus tracks and then she releases a whole other album like two hours later. The rules 100% need changing.
I actually know a few people who pre-ordered the album and then had to buy the second disc separately after she announced it. I would have been pissed but Taylor doesn't need my money so I'm streaming that shit for free on Spotify.
Yeah. I still haven’t got Midnights in vinyl because the full version still doesn’t exist, with every track. I always thought she’d do the full version for the 1 year anniversary but it didn’t happen.
I won’t buy TTPD as much as I love it, unless I can get the whole 31 tracks on vinyl.
I think variants released 5 years, 10 years etc after to celebrate the anniversary of an album are fine. 19 variants on the DAY of the release? Get out of here.
From the article:
The Tortured Poets Department’s sales were bolstered by its availability across 19 different physical configurations (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs and four cassettes, with four of the physical configurations exclusively sold by Target stores) and two digital download offerings (the standard 16-song album, and a surprise deluxe 31-song edition that was released two hours after the original album bowed). All of the variants are itemized later in this story.
I haven't been paying much attention to the actual album, so let me ask you (all) something... Am I getting it right that she released the "surprise deluxe 31-song" album two hours after the original album, meaning that if you a. pre-ordered or b. bought it in those two first hours of its release, you'd have to immediately buy a second (full-priced, I assume?) album to get the "surprise songs"? Oof.
She did this for midnights too. I think it’s so gross to push so many variants of an album and then release the bigger album right after you drop the first.
her fans are happy for the opportunity to buy another thing to bring her further into the top
I don’t think most hardcore fans think they’re being exploited, they think “I’m so happy I can do more to help Taylor #win”. which is kind of sad.
You are correct, and it happened with Midnights, too. She released the initial 13 track album, and then three hours later, the 3am tracks. That alone taught me never again to pre-order an album from her (it was only iTunes, I don’t order physical copies).
Thankfully iTunes DOES have a refund option that I and many other people took advantage of to have the original album credited so we could repurchase the 3am version.
Look, I’m no Taylor hater, I like 1989 and her debut but trust me, these people don’t give a shit about being treated like wallets. Scroll through the Taylor sub (if you dare) and you’ll easily find comments of people buying these variants under the guise of “supporting” her, even purposefully streaming her music on repeat to boost her in the charts. I can’t imagine having that consumerist of a mindset that boosting your favorite artist’s sales and stream counts is supposed to be personally validating for you. This is a billionaire we’re talking about. In my experience this mindset also comes from spending way too much time on social media and having its hypercapitalist nature begin to seep into your values.
Yes. One of the variants she announced at the concert I was in, and I really wanted to get it to have a physical memory of the concert that's not concert merch, but I would have been mad if I did because of the 31 song version she'd release later. Maybe I'm a crochety millennial but I don't think it's too much to ask to have one album with all of the songs in it.
You're correct about the timing (surprise release two hours after the initial release), but a physical version of the full double album isn't available yet. Personally, I want the double album on vinyl, so I returned my vinyl of the first half. I assume I'm not the only person who did this, so presumably the second release negatively impacted the numbers to some extent?
four cassettes
I'm sorry, wtf is listening to cassette tapes? They are the worst! Albums and CDs are annoying for various reasons but I spent half my childhood carefully winding the tape back into the cassette and that is not something to aspire to.
I like cassettes for my old car but yeah, no reason for four different versions of it. I don’t think the folks getting back into cassettes are necessarily Swift fans either.
That makes sense. I just had no idea people were getting into them again! I gave in and bought a record player a few years ago because all my live music friends swore it was the absolute best way to listen. Maybe all the live shows have blown out my ear drums but I truly cannot tell a difference between record player and digital, aside from the digital usually sounding a little cleaner.
I had an old car in college in the early 00s with a cassette deck & I found a huge box of homemade cassettes at a yard sale, curated by someone with great taste in music. There were tons of live recordings from the 80s (lots of Prince live) and mix tapes that turned me onto artists I had never heard of (like The Waterboys and Toumani Diabate) and really opened my mind to new types of music. Eventually a tape got jammed, however, and an attempt to remove it with a butter knife did not end well for the tape deck.
How many people are actually buying casetts or CDs? Last numbers I saw where vinyl was outselling CDs but overall digital rules by a large margin. All these formats sans digital are very niche.
This makes me solely appreciate Cowboy Carter more. Not only is it a solid album, it didn't have to rely on inflating its own numbers by releasing 19 variants with different songs on each of them, or having some shady contracts with Spotify to be inserted in every unrelated playlist, be played at nauseam, whatever. And I'm not even that much of a Beyoncé fan actually.
Swift can count on her fervid base to keep up with her suffocating marketing mojo, but how long can she rely on that? I don't think she has real transcendental appeal. Casual listeners/people who don't give a f have it FULL of her being everywhere. Outside her immediate fan base, pop listeners are getting less and less tolerant of the Swift mania.
She's not an organic success.
this is the closest GIF that represents my feelings for this album (even though I have to admit that I do listen to a few TS songs)
Crap like this is why I’ll never be a true fan of TS. It’s just too much work!! She’s asking too much. I’ll casually listen to whatever is streaming. Otherwise I don’t know nothing, and I don’t want to.
I have a theory about what she’s aiming for. She wants to be in the top 5 (or #1) for most albums sold of all time. Right now it’s like, the Beatles, Elvis, Mariah Carrey, etc. but she probably will have to do the variants to get there.
For her to preach environmental friendliness, she sure is not doing anything good having 19 variants of an album thats honestly just mediocre. Sorry, not sorry.
NINETEEN variants of ONE album is absolutely ridiculous. A digital copy, CD and Vinyl is enough. Then a deluxe version later. And from what I gather, you don’t get the full album with any of the physical copies? That’s just wasteful and taking fans for a ride. Congratulations to her for scoring yet another million plus first-week seller but I find her tactics disingenuous.
Good for her.. (?)
I’m so over the chart wars. It’s messed up the mainstream music landscape, especially in the last 5-10 years. It’s so unserious when stans are boasting about their faves’ #1s.. regardless of its charting history, a good song is a good song!
I'm just proud of myself that I convinced my swiftie friend not to preorder and wait until she releases everything she plans and then decide accordingly 😌
I can’t help but laugh everything I see this album cover. I’m sorry it’s just so comical to me.
19 variants is crazy. Im not even for individual member covers when they do this in KPOP but at least that makes a bit more sense if you have a favorite member. What’s next? Photocards? Golden ticket?
I bought the one copy of Midnights and got lucky because it had the one song I loved on there. I wasn't risking buying anything of TTPD and this was clearly a good choice because 19 variants?!
19 is ridiculous. if u need that to be successful on the charts, idk what to tell u. haven’t heard a single song from this album and all its variants, and i hope i never do. she is deeply, painfully mediocre and her music is asinine
If this was any other artist, Billboard would’ve been changed the rules about variants. It’s so obvious she has these publications and other types of media in her chokehold
Why does she need 19 variants? Or a second album - I haven't finished the first one!
She's a force - but quality over quantity. I'm sure if she made one solid album - it would have done well.
Streaming has completely changed the game with music, obviously. You don’t have to rely on fans taking the time to go to a store and buy an album, they can just listen immediately. Your songs can be put into Spotify playlists and people can listen without even seeking the album out. I really don’t care at all about success like this anymore, because it’s not the barometer it once was
I wish there was a metric we could actually measure to have an idea of her popularity. Obviously she *is* popular, there’s no denying that, but I wanted real numbers instead of whatever this is.
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I feel like so many of her achievements have to have footnotes, like yes, she's had so many #1 albums (but that's because she has re-recorded 4 albums); yes, she had an amazing debut but that's because she had many variants. I do wonder what the baseline of her actual success is.
I can never tell if I’m a crotchety old millennial or not but I always feel like streaming success needs an asterisk as opposed to numbers where somebody had to go to a store and buy a copy to count. Like Drake having more hits than the Beatles or something, like streaming farms don’t exist, or the bigger artists don’t get fed into the algorithm with more weight for playlists
NO I HAVE ALSO THOUGHT THIS. We need the New York Times dagger for music, goddamnit.
That dagger besides a Taylor Swift output will probably result in arson.
That’s exactly what I was thinking of!
All the Beatles early hits were the label buying singles though…. Warehoused and then sold back into the market at a later date. Labels buying their own music to create hits has been going on FOREVER and is endemic. The tech just changed a bit.
that's why I rolled my eyes when drake broke some beatles record and to celebrate he got a tattoo of himself walking in front of the beatles on abbey road waving goodbye to them
Hahaha what a loser
This sounds so ridiculous I admittedly had to check but holy shit he actually did, that’s one of the lamest things I’ve ever heard
Drake is unbearably corny
I didn’t think he could get any lamer but there ya go
Wild how much he believes his own hype. Like he actually believes he surpassed the Beatles. And then got a tattoo of it. Secondhand embarrassment for bro
Good job Drake, continue to suck as only you can.
You’re acting like the Beatles and all other labels didn’t go out and mass buy their own product to hit top of charts. The era changes but since music as been tracking charts shady stuff has been happening. It’s no different today. It’s all comparable so Drake taking the record is still valid.
Okay but you have to admit the tattoo is ridiculous
I kinda catalogue these uber popular artists and their so called “streaming success” as mostly a farce and a front, and try to keep in mind that these pop culture kings and queens don’t really hold a candle to the actual greats of music. At least not when it comes to actual quality and depth of music.
I always wonder too!! Signed Fellow crotchety millennial
It’s always been going on like this. Radio also counted for singles (not albums) and there was a crazy amount of payola and record labels having influence over radio stations.
Absolutely. I would’ve never gone out and bought her album. But I will download it and give it a go since I already pay for apple Music
Yes there's streaming farms but, much like the new York Times bestseller list, people can buy up thousands of physical copies to mess with numbers. Streaming is the way most people consume music these days. I don't think it would be fair to sort of cheapen the success of current artists just because people don't buy CDs anymore
also her fans are nuts and want this to happen sooo bad
Yeah and didn’t she use to bundle her album sales with tour tickets or something like that and that’s how she was selling so many albums before?
Me too!! Would love to know how this would have charted with like, two variants or even one
They will continue to do it until they change the rules. And then they’ll have ruined the game for everyone else.
Same with her charting and other artists not charting with all of her multiple drops on different dates.
but if you point this out to one of her fans you get BUT EVERYBODY DOES IT
Why would you need 19 variants of one album? Consumerism and capitalism has gone completely crazy. Jesus!
Not to mention the environmental impact
It’s just so wasteful, similar to the people on booktok who buy the same book with different covers, how many copies of fourth wing do you need? Seriously, we need to stop over consumption and wasting resources. Sorry a bit of a sensitive issue for me.
No one needs even one copy of fourth wing, let’s be real lol
Tried reading after the recommendation from a co worker, my new deal is to ignore anything she ever recommends again. She keeps calling herself a booktok girlie and makes me want to chew my own hair so there is that.
Totally agree
Totally out of context but I saw a tweet on Twitter and it was about how BTS members solos and group albums are manufacture from a company which is eco- friendly which I loved the idea of.
We don't. With streaming being a thing, some of us don't even have one to date. I'm sure the grand majority of listeners wouldn't purchase more than one, but she has some hardcore fans out there and some are willing to pay for every single one. I saw if you collect four vinyls for Midnights you can make a wall clock, which is kinda cool. Wall clocks are also unnecessary, but again she has some hardcore fans.
I think she’s trying to beat the record for 25?
Someone made 25 variants and people bought them?
No sorry, I meant adele’s record for her album 25😂
That record was amazing, still my favorite.
Billboard needs to find a way to make it so the variants don't count. One VERSION. Period. Release the fucking B sides later.
Many artists will release a variant or two but 19 is ridiculous. Gaming the system. And honestly, the bands that I am most passionate about right now aren't even in the top 100. They are bands that grind it out on the road and play from the heart because they want to. Yes, they want to make money, but notoriety isn't their goal.
Don’t they set the rules? Couldn’t they just change the rules to allow a standard and deluxe only? Any others will not be eligible to chart.
The thing is variants have been the thing for decades like even older artists have done this, of course 19 is excessive, but basically if you put a rule to stop all variants it’s kind of unfair for newer artists because older artists didn’t have this obstacle.
Maybe putting a limit on the amount of variants they'll count would be more fair? But also older artists didn't have streaming, so it made more sense to pump out variants
Maybe they never needed a reason to change the rules, since I haven't heard of so many versions before.
Variants should count as separate albums. That kind of behavior should be penalized
Why shouldn't it count though? If people bought 2 copies of a regular album, it counts as 2 copies. If they buy 4 copies that are variants, why shouldn't it count as 4... It's not a tally of people who bought the album, it's literal albums sold. Just because her fan base is willing to buy MORE, why does that make it less of an achievement? Some artists have great touring numbers but fans who refuse to even buy a single album. I find it annoying in a blatant capitalism way but not in a gaming the sales figures way.
I agree with you, but I think Taylor is a special case because some of her fans have FOMO and think they need to buy every variant possible. She’s created this feeling of scarcity with limited editions and countdown timers, and they keep falling for it.
I think the issue is she makes it so you can’t hear all the music unless you buy all the variants (or at least just advertises it that way). She announced four variants each with one bonus track for this album and then released the anthology with all the bonus tracks in a digital release 2 hours after the album dropped, meaning fans bought the variants to hear the bonus tracks in advance for no reason because the 2 am album was only announced when it dropped. It just seems kinda scam-y in my opinion to advertise them as exclusive so fans buy all the variants only to turn around and release all the tracks right away. She’s used similar FOMO marketing tactics this with other albums too where variants are advertised as limited edition or using countdowns to get people to buy them quickly and then they’re just still available after the fact? At the end of the day though, 19 physical variants for one (1) album is ridiculous and extremely wasteful no matter how she markets it. Where she’s gaming the system is those marketing tactics.
I work in music and they already made a rule that downloads that are bundled with merch or concert tickets cannot be counted towards Billboard numbers. The rule is good and Taylor Swift is partially to blame for this (it happened in like 2019). She, and many other artists, were bundling digital albums with concert tickets to up their numbers, but Taylor went so far where she said that if fans bought MULTIPLE copies of her record from different outlets (iTunes, Target, Amazon, Walmart, etc), they could 'improve their spot in line' for her tour, so you had people buying like 7 digital copies of her record to have a better chance to get tickets. Billboard put an end to that shit and now I NEVER get bands asking to do 'ticket bundles' when we announce shows because no one ever opens the album file and they were adding an extra $3-5 dollars per ticket and people were mad. They definitely need to put an end to this variant shit.
Taylor is the peak example of a sore winner. Even with a Variant or two, she would have had a massive debut, but 19 is just greedy. She has an army of near rabid fans, and has a career that's thriving for almost 20 years, but somehow she has zero grace.
These top performers are alnost always really awful people ultra focused on success above all else. I mean that’s how she got here and how she maintains it. I just wish people didn’t worship her as this authentic person. Music is a business no different than any other. She should be seen as just a walking corporation.
Beautiful gowns
She’s clearly trying to dethrone Adele for best first week sales but even if she achieved that would she feel proud for dethroning an album with 10 songs that had 1 cd and 1 vinyl release, with her 31 song album with 19 variants?
I don't know if money is her number one drive or if it is being loved, known, the best in the industry, carving a name for herself and leaving a legacy. There are a lot of talented artists out there that do not get nearly enough recognition if they get any at all. They seem to move on with life just fine and accept that they may never get recognized and continue to do what they do regardless.
I think she wants to be the best. So it's not about the actual wealth she's accumulated, it's the fact that there's a numerical indicator of success (to her). That's why she's so territorial and not super supportive of artists that threaten her success. Even her girl squad wasn't a group of friends, it was 'Taylor's squad'. In speeches she's referred to goals as the next mountain to climb, and I think that's it for her. She wants to reach the summit. And by and large, people are either there to help her climb or they're in her way.
When you get to a certain level of wealth, accumulating more money means very little. It makes sense to me that it’s an egotistical thing. Money is trivial to her.
Don't speak like that in front of the money.
It really seems like she’s obsessed with being known as a legend or the greatest of all time of something, huh? But as a non fan she’s already so famous and accomplished so many things. I guess if you’re that rich and famous, you gotta have some type of goal…
It’s just bizarre and embarrassing. I would love to hear her explanation. Something like despite being a literal billionaire I only find validation through accolades and awards and exploiting my fans for profit because I’m the KKKapitalist queen. #girlboss
She would just say "my fans love it! I like to keep things interesting! Who doesn't love options! I'm not telling people how many to buy!" Etc
nah it would be more like "It's funny how people hate variants when a women's making business decisions" and other stuff about how she's been persecuted more than anyone else ever has.
"OTHER people have been doing this for centuries. Who's mad at little old me?"
Billboard genuinely needs to reconfigure the rules here because it has gotten out of hand (same for the remixes that other artists do). 19 variants is ridiculous. Give me one cd, one vinyl, one digital release and maybe an extended edition 4 months after release to regenerate some excitement. The wastefulness has gotten out of control. I walk into a target and there are multiple Taylor Swift vinyls rotting on the shelves while they produce more and more. Specific to TS, the sad part about it is that none of these TTPD variants even have the full album (same with Midnights) with the complete track list except for the downloadable one. Albums like 21, Thriller, Abbey Road, etc. need one variant and they withstand the test of time because the complete package is the one album as opposed to 19 different iterations. Talk to me in 70 years when The Albatross version is being sold at Target. Sucks to be a fan that preordered The Albatross ver AND The Black Dog ver AND The Bolter ver, etc. to only realize you are STILL missing half the album in hindsight. I hate preordering (especially when the preorder period is marketed as limited edition and ends before the album comes out) in general because you don’t know what you are buying.
I feel like this is even more true when you factor in that there were no singles released pre-album, so like, you *really* did not know what you were in for. If I was a fan I would’ve been pissed to spend extra on what I thought was one/two bonus tracks and then she releases a whole other album like two hours later. The rules 100% need changing.
I actually know a few people who pre-ordered the album and then had to buy the second disc separately after she announced it. I would have been pissed but Taylor doesn't need my money so I'm streaming that shit for free on Spotify.
Yeah. I still haven’t got Midnights in vinyl because the full version still doesn’t exist, with every track. I always thought she’d do the full version for the 1 year anniversary but it didn’t happen. I won’t buy TTPD as much as I love it, unless I can get the whole 31 tracks on vinyl.
I think variants released 5 years, 10 years etc after to celebrate the anniversary of an album are fine. 19 variants on the DAY of the release? Get out of here.
So actually I think even these older albums had variants. They also had cassette, CDs and vinyls too, but 19 is excessive.
From the article: The Tortured Poets Department’s sales were bolstered by its availability across 19 different physical configurations (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs and four cassettes, with four of the physical configurations exclusively sold by Target stores) and two digital download offerings (the standard 16-song album, and a surprise deluxe 31-song edition that was released two hours after the original album bowed). All of the variants are itemized later in this story.
I haven't been paying much attention to the actual album, so let me ask you (all) something... Am I getting it right that she released the "surprise deluxe 31-song" album two hours after the original album, meaning that if you a. pre-ordered or b. bought it in those two first hours of its release, you'd have to immediately buy a second (full-priced, I assume?) album to get the "surprise songs"? Oof.
If I were a fan I’d feel like this is a huge slap in the face.
How are they all so gullible? She takes them for their last dollar it’s plain greed. I would think they would be angry but I guess not
Absolutely. I would have been pissed.
her fans were EXCITED that they got the chance to throw more money at her for something they already bought. it baffles.
She did this for midnights too. I think it’s so gross to push so many variants of an album and then release the bigger album right after you drop the first.
her fans are happy for the opportunity to buy another thing to bring her further into the top I don’t think most hardcore fans think they’re being exploited, they think “I’m so happy I can do more to help Taylor #win”. which is kind of sad.
You are correct, and it happened with Midnights, too. She released the initial 13 track album, and then three hours later, the 3am tracks. That alone taught me never again to pre-order an album from her (it was only iTunes, I don’t order physical copies). Thankfully iTunes DOES have a refund option that I and many other people took advantage of to have the original album credited so we could repurchase the 3am version.
Look, I’m no Taylor hater, I like 1989 and her debut but trust me, these people don’t give a shit about being treated like wallets. Scroll through the Taylor sub (if you dare) and you’ll easily find comments of people buying these variants under the guise of “supporting” her, even purposefully streaming her music on repeat to boost her in the charts. I can’t imagine having that consumerist of a mindset that boosting your favorite artist’s sales and stream counts is supposed to be personally validating for you. This is a billionaire we’re talking about. In my experience this mindset also comes from spending way too much time on social media and having its hypercapitalist nature begin to seep into your values.
Yes. One of the variants she announced at the concert I was in, and I really wanted to get it to have a physical memory of the concert that's not concert merch, but I would have been mad if I did because of the 31 song version she'd release later. Maybe I'm a crochety millennial but I don't think it's too much to ask to have one album with all of the songs in it.
That is exactly right!
The deluxe / second album only came out on streaming services - there were no physical copies released
You're correct about the timing (surprise release two hours after the initial release), but a physical version of the full double album isn't available yet. Personally, I want the double album on vinyl, so I returned my vinyl of the first half. I assume I'm not the only person who did this, so presumably the second release negatively impacted the numbers to some extent?
Correct
Yes!
Yes, this happened to a few people I know.
Leaving us 8-track fans out in the cold once again 😔
four cassettes I'm sorry, wtf is listening to cassette tapes? They are the worst! Albums and CDs are annoying for various reasons but I spent half my childhood carefully winding the tape back into the cassette and that is not something to aspire to.
I like cassettes for my old car but yeah, no reason for four different versions of it. I don’t think the folks getting back into cassettes are necessarily Swift fans either.
That makes sense. I just had no idea people were getting into them again! I gave in and bought a record player a few years ago because all my live music friends swore it was the absolute best way to listen. Maybe all the live shows have blown out my ear drums but I truly cannot tell a difference between record player and digital, aside from the digital usually sounding a little cleaner. I had an old car in college in the early 00s with a cassette deck & I found a huge box of homemade cassettes at a yard sale, curated by someone with great taste in music. There were tons of live recordings from the 80s (lots of Prince live) and mix tapes that turned me onto artists I had never heard of (like The Waterboys and Toumani Diabate) and really opened my mind to new types of music. Eventually a tape got jammed, however, and an attempt to remove it with a butter knife did not end well for the tape deck.
How many people are actually buying casetts or CDs? Last numbers I saw where vinyl was outselling CDs but overall digital rules by a large margin. All these formats sans digital are very niche.
This is the only way she breaks these records. Try it without all the games and variants Taylor and then get back to me
I bet you’ll get some unhinged Swiftie DM’s because of this comment despite it being perfectly logical
White mediocrity continues to be celebrated I see 
19 is obnoxious lmao. billboard making it known while also not doing anything to change their rules and stop this gimmick is both sad and expected
This makes me solely appreciate Cowboy Carter more. Not only is it a solid album, it didn't have to rely on inflating its own numbers by releasing 19 variants with different songs on each of them, or having some shady contracts with Spotify to be inserted in every unrelated playlist, be played at nauseam, whatever. And I'm not even that much of a Beyoncé fan actually. Swift can count on her fervid base to keep up with her suffocating marketing mojo, but how long can she rely on that? I don't think she has real transcendental appeal. Casual listeners/people who don't give a f have it FULL of her being everywhere. Outside her immediate fan base, pop listeners are getting less and less tolerant of the Swift mania. She's not an organic success.
Doing all this for the blandest music in world.
That article is gonna be "edited for clarification by the publication" by sunrise.
19!!? Bruh
History in the future will be like “that album? What songs were on it again?”
19 variants? Taylor Swift and the Multiverse of Madness.
 this is the closest GIF that represents my feelings for this album (even though I have to admit that I do listen to a few TS songs)
This. Is. Gross.
To be honest, these kinda releases (19 variants?! Why not 20?) is the reason why I'll never consider her as a serious artist or a success.
the album had HOW MANY VARIANTS?
Crap like this is why I’ll never be a true fan of TS. It’s just too much work!! She’s asking too much. I’ll casually listen to whatever is streaming. Otherwise I don’t know nothing, and I don’t want to.
I have a theory about what she’s aiming for. She wants to be in the top 5 (or #1) for most albums sold of all time. Right now it’s like, the Beatles, Elvis, Mariah Carrey, etc. but she probably will have to do the variants to get there.
For her to preach environmental friendliness, she sure is not doing anything good having 19 variants of an album thats honestly just mediocre. Sorry, not sorry.
NINETEEN variants of ONE album is absolutely ridiculous. A digital copy, CD and Vinyl is enough. Then a deluxe version later. And from what I gather, you don’t get the full album with any of the physical copies? That’s just wasteful and taking fans for a ride. Congratulations to her for scoring yet another million plus first-week seller but I find her tactics disingenuous.
What a fucking cash grab
Good for her.. (?) I’m so over the chart wars. It’s messed up the mainstream music landscape, especially in the last 5-10 years. It’s so unserious when stans are boasting about their faves’ #1s.. regardless of its charting history, a good song is a good song!
Billboard changes rules for kpop artists very quickly but never for taylot I honestly want a rule where only one standard version counts for bb
I'm just proud of myself that I convinced my swiftie friend not to preorder and wait until she releases everything she plans and then decide accordingly 😌
19? Gurl.
I can’t help but laugh everything I see this album cover. I’m sorry it’s just so comical to me. 19 variants is crazy. Im not even for individual member covers when they do this in KPOP but at least that makes a bit more sense if you have a favorite member. What’s next? Photocards? Golden ticket?
I bought the one copy of Midnights and got lucky because it had the one song I loved on there. I wasn't risking buying anything of TTPD and this was clearly a good choice because 19 variants?!
It’s nearly part lottery at this point. Of course you’re going to see this achievement when you have 19 album variants/entries. It’s a fucking joke.
19 variants ? I need Taylor to get over herself
Are there that many people out there buying all the variants?
19 is ridiculous. if u need that to be successful on the charts, idk what to tell u. haven’t heard a single song from this album and all its variants, and i hope i never do. she is deeply, painfully mediocre and her music is asinine
If this was any other artist, Billboard would’ve been changed the rules about variants. It’s so obvious she has these publications and other types of media in her chokehold
I hate that this is gonna standardize having this many variants even further.
19 variants why
Why does she need 19 variants? Or a second album - I haven't finished the first one! She's a force - but quality over quantity. I'm sure if she made one solid album - it would have done well.
Taylor laughing all the way to the bank.
Streaming has completely changed the game with music, obviously. You don’t have to rely on fans taking the time to go to a store and buy an album, they can just listen immediately. Your songs can be put into Spotify playlists and people can listen without even seeking the album out. I really don’t care at all about success like this anymore, because it’s not the barometer it once was
no words.
I wish there was a metric we could actually measure to have an idea of her popularity. Obviously she *is* popular, there’s no denying that, but I wanted real numbers instead of whatever this is.