The modern Deluxe Edition stigma in music has continued to grow recently, with listeners even questioning what the point is. Deluxe albums in music used to be a gift to fans, and now they are just marketing scams.
If a tree falls down in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise? Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” has approximately 38 variants, including 27 physical editions and seven digital download editions in the timespan of 28 days, none of which include a single new song. The only thing they add is a different cover or vinyl color. This isn’t giving more options for super fans; this is exploitation. Most of these variants will be lost in time due to lack of new content, causing more waste than substance. This all roots back to Swift cash grabbing and clawing to keep her album high on the charts.
One of the biggest recent examples is Tyler, The Creator’s new reissue of his album “CHROMAKOPIA”, “CHROMOKOPIA+.” It was released Oct. 28, adding a total of one new track. There is no point in releasing this, except for expanding sales of the original album. A strategically smart idea, but it gives fans nothing but a bad taste in their mouths.
Artists are getting so used to deluxe albums just being another way to boost sales; they release them days or even the same day as the original album. Ed Sheeran released both “Play” and “Play ExtendedEdition” on the exact same day, Sept. 12, which drives his fans to listen to the album, then jump ship to the extended version at once. This adds no specialized feeling to the songs on the extended version, considering they’d get the same feeling if it was on the original album.
Deluxe albums are supposed to grab your attention with music and content. SZA’s album “SOS” holds the record for the longest-running No. 1 album in the history of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Without taking away from the rightful success of this album, in February SZA released “SOS Deluxe: LANA,” which added a grand total of 19 tracks, a substantial amount of music. This helped “SOS” return to#1 on the billboard Hot 200 nearly 22 months after its first peak, showing there is a right way to make a deluxe album in modern times, compared to artists doing the bare minimum to attract numbers, not quality.
