Asher Gibbons
The Southern Editor
The lucky number is 36. That’s how many different variations of Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has. The separation of content done by Swift is unprecedented, forcing fans to literally create google spreadsheets to keep track of how many different album versions there are.
Although Swift is getting grilled for the content of the album itself, the amount of different platforms and formats of the album that are being sold is questionable.
There are 29 different physical versions spanning between CD, Vinyl and even cassette formatted music. Hardcore Swiftie collectors are swimming in products and merchandise, but it comes at a hefty cost. If you were to purchase all 27 items, it would set you back $647.33. The haul would include hand signed CDs as well as different album covered vinyls and even a cardigan. This information was compiled by Reddit user koiblab who has created a comprehensive spreadsheet cataloging every product related to The Life of a Showgirl.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with this marketing strategy of having different ways to consume the content, but the content itself is misleading. Whoever is buying a physical deluxe version of an album is getting no extra music to consume.
The main album is 12 songs long, yet the deluxe album is 26 “songs” long. The additional 14 compared to the original album includes a welcome message to the album, 12 explanations and background info behind each song and a “thank you for listening” from Swift directly.
It’s not like the background info that’s given is meaningful, either. It’s simply Swift doing a monotone audiobook reading for 40 seconds, which adds absolutely nothing to the song itself. There aren’t even any additional tracks, rather just different versions of the 12 songs on the standard edition.
And this is just the Spotify version of the deluxe album. The iTunes version includes yet another 12 songs, but they’re just “lyric video” visual aids of the same original songs. There’s also six other purchasable digital products besides the track by track album that include either a video, different versions of specific tracks or voice memos from Swift.
This case of too many products has been seen before, but not nearly to the degree that Swift has taken it. Last summer, Charli XCX released 25 different variations of “Brat,” however there were only two different digital variations, the regular album and the deluxe. Unlike Swift’s album, the deluxe version actually included three extra songs for the faithful listeners.
The other 23 variants were for visually distinct looking vinyls. Although I’m sure there were some people who did collect all of them, you aren’t missing out on extra content from one variant if you bought a different one. I have an easier time justifying this because Charli gave her fans all of the content up-front and didn’t lock anything behind exclusivities or an overwhelming pay wall.
In addition to causing a headache for the general consumer, Swift has also seemingly caused a division within her Swiftie fanbase. TikTok user @chelseaexplainsitall, a social media personality with nearly 300k followers, posted a video airing her grievances about the new album that seemed to resonate with other fans.
“I believe strongly that you owe your consumer accurate marketing for the product you’re selling, especially if during tough economic times you’re going to pressure them into getting limited edition variants of an album that they’ve never heard,” Chelsea said.
I don’t see the value in purchasing an album you already own and receiving an exorbitant amount of different collectibles if there’s no additional music being provided. I guess I can understand the appeal for more dedicated fans, but is there really that much more value to the vinyl if it’s pink instead of pearl?
