It's not that the idea is bad, it's that nobody other than Charli XCX nailed the concept 

Excessive is what Taylor is doing. I believe this is Florence's first time doing it? 

Thse people are so annoying. Nobody is forcing you to buy all the variants. Buy the main cover and shut up.

Edited August 28, 20251 yr by Broken

No one's forcing you to buy any of them

This is such a non issue  is it a cash grab? Well yes, but it's only a problem if you're gullible enough to keep buying everything instead of choosing your favorite cover.

 

30 minutes ago, TedMiracle said:

Excessive is what Taylor is doing. I believe this is Florence's first time doing it? 

She has done it before with two alternative covers for HBHBHB a whole decade ago, so that guy isn't making sense with this "Oh no, not Florence too!" bs

I don't really see the issue   They still have a main cover that's meant to be THE cover and I don't think alternate covers take away from that.  These are fun collectors items (and a great option if you don't like the main cover  )

 

It is a bit annoying when the alternate covers are better though.  See: MAYHEM and TLOAS

Well, I actually prefer this approach. I'll buy whatever album cover suits my taste. I believe this is a common practice in Jpop and Kpop. 

 

I kinda agree. I prefer when the artist sticks to one visual representation of the music through the album cover. More artwork inside the booklet is also great when it meets the cover aesthetic. 

i like them

Yes

They give you options to choose which one you prefer.

I don't think it's excessive. It's brilliant because they focus on and listen to their fans/customers' need.

They say, don't judge a book by its cover but not everyone can do that. A beautiful cover makes people curious and attract them to buy and to play them.

Everyone talk about oh music is not a bling bluh bluh bluh but isn't it hypocritical if you don't wanna sell your arts? You don't wanna make money? You don't care about your livelihood? It's good when an artist can earn money from their right field, not relying on deals from fashion brands and other things.

I think it makes them happy and have more motivation to do more arts

Let her make some money

i'm sorry but this is one of the many things yall can't convince me to give af about.

 

 

the only gripe i have is: I understand it's to push physical sales, but I wish streaming services (well apple music because you can change artwork hihi) would let you be able to use those alt covers with animated artwork. some of them are truly a serve

Edited August 28, 20251 yr by King Fabray

it's so lame, nowadays artists / labels do it to sell more physical copies. there's no longer intentionality to it

It's not a huge issue, but I think it creates an expectation for artists/labels to put out 4-5 alternate covers (most of which are lazy and lacklustre). I like the idea of having one stand-alone cover, a deluxe cover, and maybe a special web-store edition, but we really don't need 1-2 good covers and 3-5 uninspired beauty shots.

yes 

7 hours ago, Yog said:

Variants are the equivalent of sports, anime, Pokemon etc trading cards, Buy them, dont buy them, no need to get your panties in a wad over it.

The difference is that if your favourite sports team sells some trading cards, they don't get more points on the next game.

 

The reason they exist is that Billboard have closed off just about every other way of selling extra albums, so alternate covers are the way of boosting sales for artists with a rich fanbase. They are really no different to merch and most of those albums are never played.

Some people are buying CD's only because of that. So it's not a problem it's just a way to make people buy cd's again. 

 

The only problem they are not on streaming services and some alternate covers are better than main one 

Alternative covers have always been a thing. They can always choose…not to buy it. 

7 hours ago, TayDuaStan said:

mayhem had 12 versions?

HMHAS only had one cover? 

 

is limited edition colored vinyls considered new variants? i thought we're talking about having multiple artworks!?

i dont mind having more options to choose from

Yes. It's too much.

Personally I like that the artist must decide on one image that defines the album/era and sticks with it.
Could be acceptable having 2 versions, if there's an artistic reason for it and is something simple like a background color change for an indie/special release or smt like that, but doesn't change fundamentally the visual that was selected for the cover.  Like Deftones did recently (2nd one is a limited indie edition).

 

Multiple cover are only used to inflate the release sales. And it's super annoying they are not all released at once at least release all and let people choose.
 

They can release the other photos as a photo shoot and add them to the physicals in the inner sleeve or as an insert or a booklet like they did on the old days and that way fans get everything but the visual identity of the album is not lost.

Alternate covers should be used only for special editions or deluxe version and stuff like that imo.
 

Edited August 28, 20251 yr by Dash_inthedark

I HATE them.

Standard cover.

Deluxe cover.

It starts to dilute the art when you have 10 different "could have been" covers. JUST CHOOSE ONE. 

I prefer when all the extra images are in a photo book or in the CD leaflet (back in the day).

14 minutes ago, Avantpop said:

i dont mind having more options to choose from

But in that case shouldn't the artists release all options at once? How can you choose if they release one at the time and some they say are limited edition so could be sold out before you decide that's that the one you like the best?

I liked it for Bangerz and Midnights but new ones every week is exhausting