I love pop music. Every time an artist like Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, or Billie Eilish announce an album, I immediately pre-save, pre-add, and pre-order. I am also an avid vinyl appreciator. I love the feeling of physically holding music and slowly lowering the needle of my record player and immersing myself in the catchiness of pop that has defined my girlhood. 

At least, that’s how it used to feel when artists would simply come out with one standard vinyl, and then maybe announce a deluxe version a few months later. Now, it seems every artist is releasing numerous versions of each album, sometimes with the only difference being that each vinyl is a different color and the album cover is a different image. 

From a business perspective, this is a smart tactic. These vinyl variations are a surefire way for a major artist, like Taylor Swift, to guarantee that her album is #1 on the charts. As a fan, though, there is a lot of pressure to buy every “limited edition” or “limited pressing” of a particular album. 

When including other forms of physical media, such as CDs and cassettes, Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” has over 30 variants. 

One might argue that a fan can simply choose their favorite variant and ignore the rest, but the way these variants are rolled out makes that not so simple. For “The Life of a Showgirl” Swift made about two or so variants available at a time after a mysterious countdown would appear on her online store. 

These sort of “drops” would occur about twice a week. As more vinyls dropped, fans flooded the comments of the Taylor Nation (Taylor’s official marketing account) Instagram page with their frustrations. 

“Taylor. My girl. I love you. I ADORE you. Please stop dropping vinyls every other day and calling it a ‘surprise.’ With love and gratitude – an OG Swiftie who makes normal money at a normal job,” read one comment. 

Another said, “Babe I’m a die hard Swiftie but please read the room we are tired” with a crying emoji placed at the end. 

It is important to note that other artists besides Swift are releasing numerous vinyl variants. Lady Gaga released at least eight vinyl variants for her recent album “MAYHEM,” and Billie Eilish also released at least eight variants of her recent release “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT.” Even artists in other genres, such as Sleep Token (Metal) and Kendrick Lamar (Hip-Hop/Rap) have released at least four versions of their most recent albums. This practice seems to be the name of the game. 

Can’t fans just not buy every version? Perhaps that is an approach to take, but with stressful countdowns and phrases like “limited time” all over the marketing for these vinyls, it is very easy to make rash decisions in order to avoid FOMO.

Pop artists will continue to market their albums in the most profitable way possible, and, baby, that’s show business for you. But consumers can make a decision to normalize buying just one version of the album. Perhaps, no matter what vinyl drops, wait about a month after an album is announced to purchase any sort of vinyl. This will allow you to make a level-headed decision about vinyl purchases and determine if you really care about what variant you end up putting on your Wi$h Li$t.