Music
Taylor Swift’s fans are already fed up with her limited edition releases for her new album. Here’s why.
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3 min read
Taylor Swift’s latest album doesn’t come out until Oct. 3, but fans already have a chance to purchase limited edition versions of the record. Many fans rushed to purchase the variants but others have pushed back at Swift. A number of people have expressed frustration that the billionaire artist continues to encourage fans to spend their money.
Taylor Swift released multiple limited editions of her upcoming album
When Swift announced her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl, she also informed fans that there would be several alternate versions of the album. Fans could purchase the “Sweat and Vanilla Perfume” edition, the “It’s Frightening” edition, the “It’s Rapturous” edition, and the “It’s Beautiful” edition. Each featured different cover images.
The album’s main cover is the “Sweat and Vanilla perfume” edition, which features Swift lying in a bathtub wearing a rhinestone top.
“My day ends in a bathtub, not usually in a bedazzled dress.… I wanted to glamorize all the aspects of how the tour felt,” she said on the New Heights podcast. “I wanted to have an offstage moment as the main album cover because the album isn’t really about what happened onstage, but what happened offstage.”
At this point, fans can also purchase limited edition vinyls called the Shiny Bug edition. They come in jewel-toned purple and green.
Taylor Swift fans are pushing back against the limited edition copies
At this point, Swift’s fans are quite used to multiple releases for each album. There are 36 versions of The Tortured Poets Department, her last album. Some fans have expressed frustration at the multiple releases.
“It’s not even out yet and she’s got a second version,” wrote one Reddit user. “How many versions are you going to rip off the fans with this time babe?”
Others found it frustrating that the album variants are only available for a limited amount of time, with staggered releases. Some people complained that the move felt designed to get people to purchase multiple versions of the album.
“If you’re going to do the multiple variants, release them all at once so fans can decide which cover they want!” wrote another person.
“In this economy?! Wish she learned from the backlash of the variants of TTPD, but nah, at the end of the day, she knows her public and she knows they will spend their money or whatever she makes, even if it is the same thing but with a different color,” commented one person. “I wanna have faith on this album, but she is making it hard to.”
Many people described the multiple releases as greedy and wasteful amid rising concerns over the economy and environment.
“Her shameless greed is so repulsive,” wrote one person.
Other people wished Swift would let the album speak for itself before inundating fans with different versions of it.
“Why can’t she give us a chance to be her fans and be excited for her releases again? If she does a tour after this? Can we not have something to wait for sometimes? I miss the early 2000s artists and releases. This schedule is ridiculous. I don’t want to be inundated with any artist that I love. It’s too much. I’m tired. The variants are based on ego. Let’s get back to being artists again.”
She will not release bonus tracks for ‘The Life of a Showgirl’
While Swift will be releasing multiple versions of the album, fans will not get bonus songs this time. She said the album will only have 12 songs.
“There’s no other songs coming,” she said. “With Tortured Poets Department, I was like, ‘Here’s a data dump of everything I thought and felt in two or three years. Here’s 31 songs.’ This is 12. There’s not a 13th, there’s not other ones coming,” she added. “This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time.… Every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons, you know, and you couldn’t take one out and it’d be the same album. You couldn’t add one. It’s just right.”
