You're 600% right. Olivia had WAY more colors and then like A month ago she released 3 more for the 1 (!) year anniversary. Everyone has it, including Adele or Ed or the people you mentioned, but only Taylor sales that much from them, that's her power and its' her biggest era it seems and for a good reason.

 

Yup exactly.. her team are what many artists could only dream of too, they know exactly what they're doing. Releasing the 'Bejeweled' as the midweek video that she said we'd get because that was one of the songs just about stopping her from getting the entire US top 10 this week which has resulted in it lifting from 11-6 in the US predictions (she's filmed several videos, this may have been a coincidence but it seemed planned), releasing digital single versions of Question...? and Bejeweled to make sure they get top 10 there (and they now both are in the early predictions), the 'clock' concept for the CDs/vinyls was absolute marketing genius too. Her team know exactly how to play the game and they play it insanely well - don't hate the player, hate the game :P

 

 

:michelle:

 

The charts must be a bitter disappointment to you then? Multi format fan buying has been going on since physical singles, then downloads before moving onto albums - it’s the norm for artists to have up to 10+ formats every single week even your mate Shakin Stevens jumped on the bandwagon with CD, vinyl and signed variants.

 

Another pissed off Taylor fan who wouldn't have been so upset if I had quoted another artist!

 

It smacks off desparation when artists are putting out multiple versions of the same format in order to push up sales. Yes there have been multiple format isses back as far as the 80s but then it was 1 vinyl, 1 cassette and 1 CD and people generally chose one of those. Why the hell put out 6 different coloured vinyl versions of the same release? Yes you can say it sold (say 300,000 units) but you've only sold it to maybe 50-60 thousand people.

Michelle McManus never relied on multiple buys x

There is NO WAY that 50-60,000 people have been willing to spend about £180 each on buying six different variants of the album just because they are available.

Sometimes I think people need to remember that this forum is filled with the very people who are most likely to buy multiple copies of something and that the real world doesn't contain many other people like them.

 

Not so sure about that! Unless all completists are chart fans I'd say that there are many people in the "real world" who will buy multiple copies.

I know it's the case with most artists! Doesn't make it right!

 

And I wasn't singling out Taylor - it just so happens that the post I quoted was talking about her sales.

 

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about it not being 'right', multiformatting has been a thing for years, JLS/1D/The Saturdays back in 2010/2011/2012 were releasing 4/5 copies of each album where each variant had a different member on the cover. I remember when Take Me Home by 1D was released I went to HMV that same day and bought 5 copies with each member on the cover :lol: even before that it was very common to have a CD1 and a CD2 of a CD single to maximise sales. Girls Aloud did it their whole career, as did most pop artists in the late 90s/early 00's

 

If you have the fanbase who will buy it, it's a very smart marketing move

 

By any account Taylor is one of the biggest artists in the world, despite being 16 years into her career and on her 10th studio album, having data on how many individual purchasers there were of this album doesn't change that

Edited October 26, 20223 yr by Starlight 13

There is NO WAY that 50-60,000 people have been willing to spend about £180 each on buying six different variants of the album just because they are available.

 

So why release all the different formats then? If everyone (or most people) only buy 1 copy why not just stick out 1 format (or at least 1 cd / 1 vinyl / 1 cassette)

If you have the fanbase who will buy it, it's a very smart marketing move

 

Can't argue with that! :) My initial point was more the fact that it's a sad state of affairs that they feel the need to do it.

 

The 2 part cd singles thing was slightly different though as you wouldn't get the same musical content on both CDs. One would maybe have remixes or live tracks, the other might have new material.

Edited October 26, 20223 yr by Shaky Fan

Once again, the classic let's criticise Taylor for successfully selling her music. It's exhausting honestly...

Can't argue with that! :) My initial point was more the fact that it's a sad state of affairs that they feel the need to do it.

 

again, its not really a 'sad state of affairs' because its what EVERYONE does to sell. its the norm

Once again, the classic let's criticise Taylor for successfully selling her music. It's exhausting honestly...

 

yup. you didn't see him popping up to criticise 5sos when they last minute got the #1 due to 4 different cassettes... :wacko: (this isn't me criticising 5sos for doing that btw)

So why release all the different formats then? If everyone (or most people) only buy 1 copy why not just stick out 1 format (or at least 1 cd / 1 vinyl / 1 cassette)

There could be all sorts of reasons... most albums come in many vinyl formats these days yet people don't flock out to buy all of them, there were about 10 different Yard Act vinyls at the beginning of the year yet the vast majority of people just chose one of them - and of course they didn't sell anywhere near the amount Taylor is selling this week. Personally I enjoy the choice and I also enjoy choosing which colour variant I want, it makes the aesthetic part of the process and also makes me feel like it is more special than just having a generic one than everyone else has. But that's just my reason, many other places will all want different versions because they can claim it as 'exclusive'. Plus people are always more likely to buy something that's limited to 500 or 1000 at full price because they worry it will sell out, if it's just one standard version then you may as well just wait - I do that with standard ones and get them cheaper in the sales.

So why release all the different formats then? If everyone (or most people) only buy 1 copy why not just stick out 1 format (or at least 1 cd / 1 vinyl / 1 cassette)

 

because although "most people" will get the 1 copy, fans will buy more. plus it creates more selection - if the standard one doesnt fit your aestheric, or you don't like it you might not want to buy it, of there are other options that do fit/ you do like it means more people will buy it

I continue to be absolutely blown away by those sales! Who would have thought even a week ago that Taylor would be opening with anywhere near those numbers?! Incredible.

I think it's probably extremely rare for someone to buy multiples of an album. But there was one time years ago where a Christina Aguilera fan bought like 100 of one of her albums, posted proof of it on the Internet and went viral obviously. :lol: So it can happen. but not much anyone can do about it.

Amazing sales for Taylor, unbelievable really. Multi-formats will help with her mega fans of course but the majority of the sales will still be individual sales.

 

I bought a copy, but I'm not crazy I ain't buying more than one! It would have to be a hardback book or something to make me buy more than one. It's just different pictures you can hardly tell.

 

I actually think it's her weakest album. Maybe it'll grow on me but I have bought every T.s album since Fearless and this one just hasn't clicked for me. Every track sounds the same. Meghan Trainor however, what a comeback album.

 

Happy for Taylor though she is a superstar and this just shows her reach.

FFS! How many times do I have to say it? I wasn't having a go at Taylor Swift. I was having a go at the fact that the music industry is so f***ed that artists have to resort to selling the same thing in multiple formats. As for it being nice to have a choice of colours, how the f*** would you have coped back in the day when like the original Ford cars you could have it in any colour as long as it was black......

Of course her releasing loads of formats is a part of the story, it's an integral part of success on what survives as the album chart these days, but you can't claim that's the whole picture when she's selling 170k+. She clearly has a large fanbase and wide appeal to casual listeners as well, her streaming numbers bear that out.

 

I wouldn't say i'm a massive fan of Taylor, I think she's released some truly brilliant songs and also some utter crap. What i've heard from this album so far fits somewhere between those two extremes. But you've got to admit that she is one of the most popular artists in the industry right now and has proved that with this album. Sure she plays the game well and she definitely has stans who would buy multiple variant copies of the same thing from what i've seen, but to suggest she's sold the best part of 200k albums in a week just because of multibuying is really daft. It's truly exceptional to sell that many albums these days so well done to her.

As for it being nice to have a choice of colours, how the f*** would you have coped back in the day when like the original Ford cars you could have it in any colour as long as it was black......

You say that like it isn't better now that cars are available in many more colours?

 

Just because things didn't used to be like they are today doesn't mean that today is worse, I far prefer having a choice where I can.

FFS! How many times do I have to say it? I wasn't having a go at Taylor Swift. I was having a go at the fact that the music industry is so f***ed that artists have to resort to selling the same thing in multiple formats. As for it being nice to have a choice of colours, how the f*** would you have coped back in the day when like the original Ford cars you could have it in any colour as long as it was black......

But isn't it better that way? the more choice, the better, no?! How we'd have "coped back in the day" is irrelevant really.