The top 10 albums on BB200 arrived with an average 7 variants in mid-2024

[Teletubby 159,946]

With an average of seven versions per top 10 album in mid-2024, labels and artists have upped their variant game in recent years.
But some consumers are starting to push back. 

According to Luminate, in early 2019, the top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 arrived with an average of 3.3 different versions of physical albums per week.

The multiple-versions trend has gone over the top in recent years. 

Taylor Swift is the master of this approach, scoring a No. 1 album earlier this year with the help of 859,000 first-week sales, including six vinyl versions of The Tortured Poets Department. And every time she sought a chart boost, she rolled out more versions — including not just physical LPs and CDs but digital downloads — allowing the album to remain atop the Billboard 200 for 17 total weeks. 

Linkin Park‘s 2024 album From Zero came out with 17 alternate physical versions, known as variants, including 11 vinyl LPs, three CDs, a CD box set and two cassettes.

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism arrived with 20 physical versions.  

Travis Scott’s 2023 album Utopia arrived with 31 variants. 

K-pop acts helped to pioneer this device and show no signs of stopping: In 2024, TWICE’s With YOU-th came out with 14 CD and three vinyl variants; ATEEZ’s Golden Hour: Part.2 had 23 CDs, six LPs and three digital downloads — and both hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in their debut weeks.

One artist who pushed back — gently — on the practice was Billie Eilish, who said she would limit her variants on 2024’s Hit Me Hard and Soft to a conservative eight, all packaged with recycled materials, but wound up releasing 14. “We are doing everything we can to minimize waste in every aspect of my music,” she said at the time.

But there are business downsides to the multiple-variant approach.  "You’re making people choose, oftentimes with limited resources financially, which one they want, knowing they can’t get them all. It’s a little unfair to get them to spend maybe 40 extra dollars to get one extra song.”source

[gagzus 20,237]

Honestly this trend is absolutely whack. It’s probably because most people can’t hit 300k in act sales anymore because of streaming.

Like 31 versions of the same album is WILD

[Teletubby 159,946]

4 minutes ago, gagzus said:

Honestly this trend is absolutely whack. It’s probably because most people can’t hit 300k in act sales anymore because of streaming.

it's not because of streaming. most artists can't reach 150k since billboard banned merch, ticket bundles, limited digital downloads and changed shipping rules.

[gagzus 20,237]

1 hour ago, Teletubby said:

it's not because of streaming. most artists can't reach 150k since billboard banned merch, ticket bundles, limited digital downloads and changed shipping rules.

I think I probably worded that wrong sorry. What I meant is bc of streaming nobody ever normally reaches that high in pure sales anymore. So the variants are replacing other means and ways to up physical copies. Hence why people (labels) are turning to physical variations now. 
 

I had heard though isn’t billboard gonna introduce a new rule (mostly bc of artists like Taylor) where a substantial amount of content must be different for it to count as an actual variant? Like no more just 1 extra song that’s basically just a sh*tty voice note from a hotel room before production of the album began; instead they must be multiple fully produced and mastered songs

[ALGAYDO 34,584]

I fear for LG7