AIBU to think releasing 28 album variations is exploiting your fans?

[defrazzled]

I looked and couldn't find a thread on this, I wondered what mums of Taylor Swift fans thought. It seems really exploitative to me. DH has thousands of vinyl records but 28 versions of one album? All slightly different so you "gotta catch them all".

https://archive.ph/Oj0vC
https://consequence.net/2025/10/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-album-variants/

Is it to increase her streaming stats or something? I dont really get why shes done it 😭

It's to sell more units and by releasing them week after week it keeps it at the top of the charts.

She also had to rerecord her early albums because she didn't.have the rights to them

Loads of hardcore Swifties buy them all! At a cost of over £700.

That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Its the squeezing of fans here I find grim.

I agree a little bit. But I also think - just don’t buy them 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m a big Taylor Swift fan. I don’t have Spotify so I bought the album to download (£12ish I guess, I can’t remember exactly). And then I’ve not bought anything else. If I had Spotify I could have listened for free.
If people can afford it and like collecting them, then fine, they can spend their money on it.
If people can’t afford it and it stresses them out, they maybe need to get a grip and realise you don’t have to buy them!

I really like Taylor swift but I thought the same. I don’t understand why she does this to such an extent. She doesn’t need the money. There is a ridiculous level of merchandise.

I hope a lot of it is secretly funding charitable causes rather than adding to her billions. She seems a decent person so I’d like to hope it’s that.

We're surprised that this woman is happy to exploit her young and naïve fanbase now? She's been doing the same sort of thing for years with strategic album dropping, she was just too obviously greedy on this occasion evidently.

I don’t know about the UK charts but in America Billboard changed the rules earlier this year because so many artists were releasing multiple variants. I don’t know how the data is collected or how this is policed/monitored, but basically if you buy all 28 variants of her albums, it doesn’t count as 28 sales for chart purposes. I think the cap per customer is 4.

@ShesTheAlbatross I totally agree with this in an ideal world. But with social media and teenagers getting caught up in "Stan" culture, it outs huge pressure on parents to fulfil the 'whole package. I agree it's ridiculous, like so much of the rampant consumerism foisted on teens, but it is happening.

@cheeseomelette As far as I can see she is polite and neutral and stays away from all controversy and she certainly gave her crew fantastic bonuses for her tour.

I don't know how streaming works
But DH complained about Rolling Stones doing 40 versions and Depeche Mode as well it's mad

my parents sold their vinyl a few years ago and I think they should have waited because there seems to be a lot more collectors now

isn't it kids who are doing all the streaming? Do they buy this stuff?

People don’t have to buy it.

Wow that's a bit mad, I didn't know she had done that. The album really isn't good enough to buy 28 times!

Are her fan base young and naive? Shes in her 30s most of her fans are surely adults

Of course no one ‘has’ to buy them - noone’s suggested that.

The question is why has she done it and what does it say about her?

I paid £1000 to see the eras tour 3 times. I’d consider myself a big fan.

I remember being really upset when Red came out and I had ordered the first version available, but then the deluxe edition came out and I really wanted the bonus tracks. At that point I stopped pre-ordering and bought on the day from iTunes, which also began backfiring as a strategy with the Midnights 3am edition and TTPD: The Anthology.

Now, I buy the first version of the CD and any late release tracks from iTunes.

I don’t really get buying multiples of the same album (24/28 of these variants have the exact same playlist) but I see some fans ardently collecting them!

I think the have the best first week sales and also to break records that were set at a time before streaming. Physical media matters to her for some reason.

She's probably in such a bubble of wealth at this point that a team sorts this stuff out for her and she doesn't think anything of it.

This to me is no different than Jellycat making soft toys (with faces) out of any random object.

Collectors are fools really. I'm sure they wouldn't bother if they didn't have the money though! It's not compulsory.

I agree it's over the top, the countdowns have created a hysteria over them too with people panic buying them in case they sold out.
I'm in a few Facebook groups and there have been lots of posts from people upset because they've fallen for the hype and ordered all the variants when they can't really afford them, some have even ordered vinyl when they have no record player.

@Wildywondrous yes, this is my thought. If she made the full catalog and release dates available fans could choose but she creates panic - have to buy it now sales and it must be a nightmare for parents to manage imo.

I doubt many are buying all the versions. Loads of artists keep dropping extended/deluxe etc versions. DD usually waits now before buying any vinyls to see what versions/covers they are releasing first. In comparison Spotify is cheap and it’s all streamable on there.

This is about the album release last week where she has released several different vinyl and cd variants to purchase.

She does it to block other female artists from getting the number one spot.