r/Music • u/ebradio • 10h ago

article Taylor Swift sparks chart-blocking accusations with new “Patient Zero” alternate versions

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/taylor-swift/taylor-swift-sparks-chart-blocking-accusations-with-new-patient-zero-alternate-versions
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u/Slight-Owl4300 9h ago edited 7h ago

How are they inflating numbers if people want to buy and listen to the variants though?

Edit- why am I getting downvoted? I don't care about the down votes but just curious why.

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u/hotlibramess 9h ago

So you think people who bought all of the midnights albums so they could make that fuck ass clock are listening to those records?

It’s all so wasteful. Just a bunch of plastic shit for landfills.

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u/Slight-Owl4300 8h ago

Do you think everyone who buys vinyl records actually plays them regularly? 

Some people buy music to listen to it, others buy it to collect it, and some do both. That isn't unique to Taylor Swift. 

Whether someone plays a record 100 times or displays it on their wall doesn't change the fact that they willingly purchased it. 

That's a legitimate sale, not an inflated number. You can criticize the environmental impact of vinyl, which is a fair conversation, but that's an entirely different topic and not what OP's original post was about.

And for what it's worth, I'm not a huge defender of all the variants either. I don't love the waste they produce. But Taylor wouldn't keep releasing them if people weren't buying them, so at some point we also have to acknowledge the role consumers play in creating that demand. That said, I don't fault people for wanting to collect unique editions of albums they love. And let's be honest, collecting multiple versions of vinyl records is hardly something exclusive to Swifties.

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u/hotlibramess 8h ago

Buying a bunch of plastic that you don’t intend to do anything with is stupid and wasteful.

Taylor swift is the source of so much pollution for SO many reasons that it’s honestly disgusting.

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u/Slight-Owl4300 8h ago

Again, now you're arguing something different. This post was about charts and variants.

There are lots of things people collect that can be considered stupid and wasteful, and can lead to waste and pollution but this post wasn't about the environmental impacts of variants.

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u/hotlibramess 8h ago

Yeah you’re right I did change directions.

But these two things are related. Multiple variant sales and multiple variant releases and charting.

It all overinflates numbers.

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u/Slight-Owl4300 8h ago

My point is that I don't think it overinflates the numbers. The fans buying these variants are also genuinely listening to the music. If the charts are measuring sales and streams, Taylor is clearly delivering both. Other artists need to figure out how to grow their fan bases and encourage people to buy and listen to their music if they want to compete. And I agree that variants encourage additional purchases, but those are still legitimate sales.