Billie Eilish is calling out the “wasteful” cash grab of making music fans buy multiple physical copies of their favorite albums.
Let’s face it. The days of spending your allowance at Sam Goody to buy a signed copy of 98 Degrees’ new album are long behind us.
The golden age of the physical CD was thwarted by the MP3, which led to a rise in digital sales, and eventually, streaming turned everything on its head.
According to the World Economic Forum, “Between 2001 and 2010, physical music sales declined by more than 60 percent, wiping out $14 billion in annual revenue. During the same period, digital music sales grew from zero to almost $4 billion.”
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Once the music industry embraced streaming, it wholly dominated sales, accounting for “67 percent of the industry’s [revenue]” in 2022. Eventually, they had to get creative by offsetting the popularity of digital sales with creative tactics like six limited-edition vinyl colors and Billie’s not feeling it.
So, raise your hand if you or a loved one have purchased at least two of the Aquamarine Green, Tangerine, Sunset Blvd Yellow, and Rose Garden Pink vinyl for Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version). You may be entitled to agree with Billie’s recent takedown of the “irritating” money-grab tactics of the music industry.
In an interview with Billboard discussing sustainability with her mother, Maggie Baird, Billie called out how artists have figured out how to game the system and make more money with many “different vinyl packages.”
“We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging,” Billie said. “Which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money and gets them more.”
“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is,” Billie said. “It is right in front of our faces, and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable.”
“It’s some of the biggest artists in the world making fucking 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more,” she continued.
“It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that shit.”
Billie acknowledged that even she “played the game” as her latest record, Happier Than Ever, had different vinyl options like sage green, light blue, pale yellow, and more.
It’s a ridiculous tactic that preys on collectors, but vinyl records, CDs, and digital downloads, aka “traditional album sales,” have to compete with endless hours of streaming somehow.
In the same interview, her mother attributed it to a systemic problem that would benefit from limits created by Billboard and other charts that could discourage artists from adopting this tactic.
“I was watching The Hunger Games, and it made me think about it because it’s like, we’re all going to do it because it’s the only way to play the game,” Billie added. “It’s just accentuating this already kind of messed up way of this industry working.”
When Billie puts it into perspective that it’s irresponsible and not sustainable to produce a dozen different colors of the same vinyl, it makes me reconsider my involvement as a consumer.
But if fans stopped buying Taylor’s Midnights in six different colors, I’m sure the industry would find another creative way to get those sales up, and I would participate.
Read the full interview here.
