Variety interviewed fans who buy Taylor Swift's album variants

[queefarazzi 164]

Not me judging them as if I won’t be buying 16 variants of charcoal heart 

Edited Monday at 05:07 AM by queefarazzi

[RAMROD 98,452]

13 minutes ago, CyanDante said:

The way these labels/artists think they can scam die-hard fans is beyond crazy.  like this should be beyond illegal.

Will you unstan when LG7 have 20 variants?   

[Head Empty 22,823]

11 hours ago, NATAH said:

because people over 30 tend to make more sensible financial decisions than this

I didn't ask to get called out like this at 7:30 in the morning

[skaxboy 3,773]

8 hours ago, River said:

 

FOMO is some sort of addiction, you can see how devastating it can be in live service games, so maybe it’s not hurting anyone, even them, well sure their bank account, but it should be at least regulated so these people won’t be exploited.

So in terms of entertainment physical media, it should be regulated? 
 

I get FOMO for concerts and such so I try my best to save up and go to them. I don’t go into debt or anything but how is it an “addiction”?

[Flippy 10,674]

13 hours ago, River said:

It's not even convenient for to have all the bonus tracks in different variants, like it's too much work just to change the cds and listen to each of them once

Me reading this with a bunch of Chromatica and Born This Way variants

[skaxboy 3,773]

4 hours ago, Chromatography said:

overconsumption hurts everybody 

I’m not a Taylor fan, I haven’t even listened to a full album but how do physical albums fall into overconsumption? So many old albums are being released in vinyl. Concerts sell t shirts and merch. We even got a Chromatica Ball collection for the HBO release. 

Physical CD’s can be recycled into automotive and construction material. Paper can be recycled. Vinyl can kinda be recycled. 
 

I understand overconsumption for fast fashion and other things, but I presume the Swifites keep their variants. 

[CyanDante 5,264]

1 hour ago, RAMROD said:

Will you unstan when LG7 have 20 variants?   

You know it did cross my mind while I was typing this. Because Interscope did it for Billie so 

I think I am too far into the game to unstan, but it will probably just shut me up for good.  and maybe lose a tad bit of respect.

[ImMatt 1,336]

14 minutes ago, CyanDante said:

You know it did cross my mind while I was typing this. Because Interscope did it for Billie so 

I think I am too far into the game to unstan, but it will probably just shut me up for good.  and maybe lose a tad bit of respect.

Love For Sale had a load of different variants too. I agree with you, though. There's two ways artists use variants:

(1) To inflate week 1 sales with multiple variants

(2) To chart block for week 3/4/5 etc when sales have dipped and they wish to block someone from getting a no1 with a few new variants.

If Gaga does the first 1, I'm OK with that. Every artist does it so it feels fair game. If she does the second and puts out new variants several weeks later, that is what feels grubby to me.

[Luke78619 22,522]

14 hours ago, Teletubby said:

variants in sports cards and video games don’t receive the same criticism.

Okay but video games don’t release a whole physical copy with just one DLC character added on, they have a group of DLC’s included in a new copy, which is exactly what people are saying Taylor should’ve done rather than one new song per new copy

[artdoll 44,600]

4 hours ago, ALGAYDO said:

Not you working it out in the remix 

omg 

[CyanDante 5,264]

2 hours ago, ImMatt said:

Love For Sale had a load of different variants too. I agree with you, though. There's two ways artists use variants:

(1) To inflate week 1 sales with multiple variants

(2) To chart block for week 3/4/5 etc when sales have dipped and they wish to block someone from getting a no1 with a few new variants.

If Gaga does the first 1, I'm OK with that. Every artist does it so it feels fair game. If she does the second and puts out new variants several weeks later, that is what feels grubby to me.

I guess so. Even I dont mind them if its like different covers or artworks, and released in the same first week to boost sales and also like for collectors to collect. 

But to tack on a new remix or a different version of a song to the same album and bringing nothing new to the table just to scam the public into buying them for the sake of it seems morally wrong for me atleast. 

I would still turn a blind eye to it if its a new artist or someone trying to breakthrough the scene , but for someone already super established it just doesn't make sense at all. Like you have already proved yourself, gotten your number 1, broken records and what not, and still you have to resort to this kind of scammy business , just why?

Other than it being just pure cash grabs, with not the slightest bit of artistic integrity whatsoever.

[Agunimon 20,739]

When it comes to Taylor specifically, the original criticism when she first announced the variants in the beginning was that she was including just a single new track at all. Most of the criticism focused on it being just a visual change from variant to variant, but now the criticism is that these variants should include more than a single new track.

Whether you like the fact that she is offering a track in addition to a visual cover change, or think it should be more than a single track added, or think it should exclusively be visual changes, this is working more than marvelously for her... so this is what she will continue to do, and others are already adjusting their album releases to reflect this.

Gone are the days where a Deluxe version and a standard version were really the only audio differences.

[Bronco 2,397]

19 hours ago, NATAH said:

because people over 30 tend to make more sensible financial decisions than this

Man, i've got like a year to get my **** together then 

[ActualPatient 624]

20 hours ago, Red said:

This is some cult **** I-

we're a cult 😂

[ARTPOPKISS 1,581]

17 hours ago, NATAH said:

see, high value replicas and other memorabilia like picture discs or vinyls with alternate artworks i can understand but owning every single version of TTPD just for one song difference is so insane to me  

I think ppl who buy the cds and vinyls taylor releasea cause there collectors are fine I do the same thing as someone who collects Gaga memorabilia

But I think taylor releasing all the vinyl variants with the sole intent of exploiting the collectors and 'true fans' for cash is very exploitative and greedy