For over a decade, Taylor Swift has been offering fans a multitude of options when it comes to purchasing her albums across physical formats with exclusive editions available through a longstanding partnership with Target. But with her new album, Midnights, out Friday (Oct. 20), she’s truly outdone herself.
There are over 20 different versions of the album available on CD, LP and cassette in various colors, with different cover artwork, censored and uncensored, with and without autographs. That plethora of options is great for fans who may want a different version than their friends, or who — as many seem to — feel driven to collect them all. It’s also great for Swift, who’s earning more money from increased sales that will impact her performance on the Billboard charts and likely add up to one of the year’s best album debut weeks.
Few artists, if any, attract as much attention as Swift does for her promotion and sales strategy, thanks largely to her close relationship with her fans. In turn, she is brilliant at developing physical goods they want to buy, in addition to just streaming her music. Last year, following the release of her re-recordings of Fearless and Red, she accounted for one out of every 50 albums sold in the U.S., according to Luminate. She knows Swifties are collectors, and is now providing not only the multiple Midnights versions but elaborate containers to put them in, like a $39 CD clock or vinyl clock for $49, which display the four albums in a timely format, or $79 faux-leather vinyl collector’s case.
In today’s streaming-centric music industry, physical albums have become collectible tokens of fandom, and artists have been responding to growing demand. BTS and other K-pop megastars regularly rack up huge numbers by selling CDs and LPs with different colors and exclusive postcards and photos sold as collectible items, with the music as a secondary benefit. When South Korean boy band Stray Kids’ MAXIDENT topped the most recent Billboard 200 chart for the week of Oct. 22, it did so with 10 CD versions, including autographed CDs and exclusive Barnes & Noble and Target releases. Increasingly, it’s becoming a mainstream strategy for acts in the U.S., too. Such disparate acts as Denzel Curry and Slipknot have recently released various physical versions of their new albums as well. It just so happens that these sales all count towards an album’s Billboard chart performances. So by offering four different versions of Midnights per format, Swift is at least quadrupling her revenue from some super fans, as well as their impact on the charts.
Based on Billboard‘s research, here is a full rundown of the different Midnights versions fans can buy:
CDs:
Moonstone Blue
Blood Moon
Mahogany
Jade Green
Signed CDs:
Moonstone Blue (Webstore Exclusive)
Blood Moon (Webstore Exclusive)
Mahogany (Webstore Exclusive)
Jade Green (Webstore Exclusive)
Clean-version CDs:
Moonstone Blue
Blood Moon
Mahogany
Jade Green
Vinyl LPs:
Moonstone Blue
Blood Moon
Mahogany
Jade Green
Signed Vinyl LPs:
Moonstone Blue (Webstore Exclusive)
Blood Moon (Webstore Exclusive)
Mahogany (Webstore Exclusive)
Jade Green (Webstore Exclusive)
Cassettes:
Moonstone Blue
Target Exclusives:
Lavender Deluxe CD (With Three Bonus Tracks)
Lavender Vinyl LP
Digital:
Moonstone Blue (Webstore Exclusive)
Moonstone Blue (Clean) (Webstore Exclusive)
Standard – 13 Tracks
Standard – 13 Tracks (Clean)
Standard – 14 Tracks
Standard – 14 Tracks (Clean)
