Last week, Billie Eilish hit headlines for her comments about vinyl records in Billboard's recent sustainability issue. The singer-songwriter called out the 'wasteful' practice of releasing multiple versions of an album in different packaging in order to drive up sales.
'I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is,' she said in the interview. 'It’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f**king 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.'
Eilish is known for her impressive eco-efforts, from representing the vegan version of Gucci's 1955 Horsebit bag to helping to launch a decarbonisation project to eliminate emissions created by the music industry. She released her 2021 album Happier Than Ever in eight vinyl variants using recycled and sustainable materials.
But Eilish's comments about wasteful artists caused a backlash among one powerful group of fans in particular: the Swifties. Some fans believed that the comments were aimed at Taylor Swift, who famously releases various versions of her albums – and dominates vinyl charts in the process (allegedly accounting for one in every 15 vinyl sales in the US in 2023).
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While Eilish refrained from naming names (in fact, she said: 'It's all your favourite artists doing that s**t'), many took her comments as a thinly veiled dig at Swift. TikTok and Reddit forums filled with fans on both sides deeming the comment hypocritical, with one user commenting: 'billie literally has 16 variants for happier than ever while the taylor album with the most variants is folklore and it only has 8'.
Aiming to put an end to speculation, Eilish posted a comment on her Instagram story. 'Okay so it would be so awesome if people would stop putting words into my mouth and actually read what I said in that billboard article,' she wrote. 'I wasn’t singling anyone out, these are industry-wide systemic issues.'
She also referenced the fact that she perpetuates the practice herself. 'When it comes to variants, so many artists release them - including ME! which i clearly state in the article, [sic]' she added, before concluding: 'The climate crisis is now and it’s about all of us being part of the problem and trying to do better sheesh.'
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