{"id":180474,"date":"2025-10-05T16:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/180474\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T16:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:05:06","slug":"taylor-swifts-showgirl-adds-ninth-variant-and-fans-push-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/180474\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift\u2019s ‘Showgirl’ adds ninth variant and fans push back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Swift<\/a> is keeping it 100, or keeping her fandom up for 100 hours as the rollout continues for her 12th era, “The Life of a Showgirl.”<\/a> An umpteenth countdown on Saturday revealed another variant drop, her ninth.<\/p>\n

The 60-minute countdown with a flowery oil painting appeared on the singer’s website at 6 p.m. ET. Swift’s marketing team, Taylor Nation, had posted a time card<\/a> of the singer’s schedule for the rollout with a hole punched at 7 p.m. Saturday. All it said was, “Standby.”<\/p>\n

Swift’s website ticked down to four limited CD releases<\/a> with images from her “The Fate of Ophelia” music video. The $8 hard copies included acoustic versions of “Showgirl” songs.<\/p>\n

Some fans online are calling out the new variants<\/a> on the account run by Swift’s team:<\/p>\n

@likedavie said, “I am a longtime fan and I love Taylor but 4 vinyls each with different songs feels like a cashgrab especially after all the previous versions.”@faith.steele said “Can we just get them all on one cd? Go back to the days of acoustic or deluxe CDs and regular and signed and call it a day. These versions are so good but nobody can buy all of these versions! Like collectors CDs with bonus stuff was fun but that\u2019s bout it we are really only gonna play one!”glitzerndes.herz said, “What about the good old ONE deluxe version with bonus tracks? Where did we (lose) that? \ud83d\udc40 you loved the acoustic set? So release TLOAS acoustic version and we\u2018ll all stream it! But listen – ONE version is enough \u2764\ufe0f\u200d\ud83d\udd25”jessa_2292 said, “This is so upsetting. I love Taylor, I do. But for the love of God why do you need so many variants? Why does one hard working fan have to buy seven different versions of an album instead of just having all of the songs be on one complete album? You have millions of dollars. Give us broke fans a break.”<\/p>\n

‘Official Release Party’ movie: What fans can expect going to Taylor Swift’s 12th era cinematic project.<\/a><\/p>\n

All the previous ‘Life of a Showgirl’ variants<\/p>\n

From the announcement of the album on Aug. 13 to the release on Oct. 3, Swift announced eight versions, each with unique photos, poems and aesthetics:\u00a0<\/p>\n

The variants aren’t a new concept in Swift economics. She had four initial vinyls of “Tortured Poets”<\/a> and one exclusive vinyl with Target, six vinyls of “Midnights” (all had the same 13 tracks), five of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” (one of these albums had the bonus track “Sweeter Than Fiction”) and 10 of “Folklore” (all had the same 17 tracks).<\/p>\n

Doyle Davis, co-owner of Grimey’s New & Preloved Music<\/a>\u00a0in East Nashville, told The Tennessean in 2024 that each version purchased counts toward physical music sales.<\/p>\n

“The thing about record collecting, and it seems to be the case with a lot of the Swifties, is they want all the versions,” he says. “If you buy four versions, you’re buying four records.”<\/p>\n

Love it or not, Swift’s formula for sales is still the industry’s gold standard. In a Sept. 30 tweet<\/a>, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) congratulated Swift on “becoming the first and only female artist in history to surpass 100 million RIAA Certified Album Units.”<\/p>\n

With her 12th album, Swift is in sixth place overall in sales:<\/p>\n

The Beatles:\u00a0183 million unitsGarth Brooks:\u00a0162 million unitsElvis Presley:\u00a0146 million unitsEagles:\u00a0120 million unitsLed Zeppelin:\u00a0112 million unitsTaylor Swift:\u00a0105 million units<\/p>\n

Separate from the physical releases, Swift\u2019s 12th era is setting streaming records.<\/p>\n

Apple Music named “The Life of a Showgirl” the platform’s biggest album of 2025 by first-day streams worldwide, while lead single “The Fate of Ophelia” broke the record for most first-day streams of any song. Spotify also confirmed “The Fate of Ophelia” as the most-streamed song in a single day in the platform’s history.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the\u00a0free, weekly newsletter This Swift Beat.<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Taylor Swift reporter Bryan West on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>,\u00a0TikTok<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0X as @BryanWestTV<\/a>.<\/p>\n