Is Taylor Swift exploiting her fans? Yes, but...

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Love it or hate it, your favorite pop star is a person and a product. How much are you willing to pay?

Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, smashed records for first week album sales. This was in part due to all the different limited-edition variants that went on sale; some for only 24 hours. Talk about pressuring your fans! Is this business strategy fan service, or fan exploitation? Where’s the line?

Brittany sits down with Stephen Thompson, host for NPR Music and Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Ann Powers, NPR music critic and correspondent, to get into the life of a business woman, why they think Swift had to make this album, and whether or not it's worth the cost.

Read Ann's (mostly positive) review of The Life of a Showgirl.

(0:00) Is Taylor exploiting her fans? Yes and No!
(3:08) Taylor's business strategy isn't hers alone...
(6:11) Why Taylor is a proxy for all our rage
(10:43) Why vinyl sales in general have skyrocketed
(13:46) How the charts impact the music industry
(15:50) Why Taylor Swift HAD to make 'The Life of a Showgirl'
(18:15) Does greed make bad art?
(21:00) Responding to your comments :)

Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluse

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:05.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:09.5	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:11.5	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
0:15.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:18.8	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:26.4	We are not even going to dance around this.
0:28.2	I want to know from your perspective, is Taylor Swift exploiting her massive fandom by releasing so many versions of her new album?
0:35.3	No.
0:37.1	I'm going to say yes with an asterisk, and that asterisk is every pop star exploits their fans in this way.
0:44.8	This is not exclusive to Taylor Swift.
0:47.4	I cannot state that emphatically enough.
0:50.1	This is part of the game of manipulating the billboard charts, and she just plays it very well.
0:58.4	Hello, hello.
0:59.8	I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,
1:03.2	a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
1:20.7	As of this recording, there are 38 variants of Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl.
1:21.4	But are all these variants fan service or fan exploitation?
1:26.4	We're getting into it with Stephen Thompson, host for NPR
1:28.6	music at Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Ann Powers, NPR music critic and correspondent. And Stephen,
1:34.8	welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having us because, you know, it's Taylor season.
1:39.2	I feel like every season is Taylor season. When you are the main character in our lives, every season belongs to you.
	...

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