We’re living in an age of musical abundance. Listeners are now able to find any music they could ever want online, for free; gone are the days of having to pay £10 for an album you haven’t even heard yet. This hasn’t been great for industry profits.
Stream-ing isn’t as profitable as physical music sales. Spotify pays artists a fraction of a fraction of a penny per stream — only the biggest artists can get a decent paycheque. This is why physical sales are still so important to the success o f small and independent artists.
The vi-nyl record industry has been steadily growing for years now, and a large part of the initial demand was a desire to support these artists. Of course, major labels caught on to this interest and quickly took action. As of the writing of this article, Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” is currently on its seventh variant.
Swaths of superfans buy two, three versions of the same album. Maybe they collect them all. Differences between these variations are entirely cosmetic; the album itself is unchanged.
Swaths of superfans buy two, three versions of the same album
There’s no need to play more than one of the records, the extras are generally kept as display pieces. What is in theory a music product is in reality a very expensive poster. The problem isn’t limited to Taylor Swift, it’s industry wide - there are currently nine versions of Billie Eilish’s newest album available on her website.
Smaller artists are disadvantaged by the production process itself. Vinyl record production is costly and resource heavy; the artificially high demand created by these seemingly infinite vinyl variations takes up resources that could’ve otherwise been used by a smaller artist. An artist putting in a smaller order of records isn’t going to get priority over a major label putting in an order for thousands.
When you’re a small artist, getting your vinyl manufactured comes with a waitlist that can be months long. High demands raise cost. If things continue in this direction, independent artists could be priced out of the vinyl market for good.
Physical sales were meant to be the thing that allowed small artists to keep up and make money in the streaming era. Now these too have been hacked by marketing tactics designed to direct attention to major artists and make money for their labels. Next time you go to buy a record, shop independent first.