Why the vinyl “ The Life of A Showgirl ” by Taylor Swift avoids prices

Friday, Tayra McDaniels, 24, will climb the stairs of her East Village apartments building and collect four pre -order vinyl editions from the new album by Taylor Swift, “The Life of a Showgirl” – each of a different color and with a different collection cover. Then she will head towards Target To hang three other exclusive CDs and another vinyl, she said.

Transport will cost him more than $ 200. “I know it’s a lot of money,” she said. “But I don’t want to miss.”

A stay in the price: McDaniels and other fans of vinyl will not have to worry about the prices on their features.

The files, the CDs and the vinyl tapes were spared from the late decline in the Trump administration of the “minimis” exemption from the Trump administration. The exemption, which had allowed packages assessed at less than $ 800 to import without prices, was designed to simplify customs for low -cost imports and reduce costs for consumers and small retailers. The decline by Trump of the exemption allowed the prices to take effect on such expeditions – but not on physical music.

A sculpture of the era of the Cold War known as amendment Berman to the international law on economic powers of emergency prevents presidents from regulating the flow of “information material”, a category which includes physical music, books and works of art.

“If the vinyl had been pricing, you could have seen the price of a disc of up to $ 40 and $ 50,” the Berklee College of Music, Ralph Jaccodine told CNBC. “So this is good news for people who buy physical music.”

The exemption, which protects one of the fastest growth music industry segments, is also welcome to Wall Street.

Vinyl sales have evolved over the past decade, especially during the pandemic, motivated by young buyers and an appetite for nostalgia. PVC discs now represent almost three -quarters of all revenues from American physical music – a jump of almost 20% since 2020, according to Recording Industry Association of America.

“It is very encouraging and a little a relief that physical music formats have been classified as exempt from prices,” said Ryan Mitrovich, Director General of Vinyl Alliance, a non -profit organization promoting the physical media working with manufacturers, distributors and music labels. “However, we do not take anything for granted here with the chaotic climate around commercial disturbances.”

The sales boom was lucrative for record companies such as Universal music groupOr UMG, which works with Swift.

His latest album, “The Torred Poets Department”, sold 3.49 million physical and digital copies, according to the Luminate entertainment data company, leading to a 9.6% jump in UMG second quarter income in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Physical income, which includes vinyl, increased by 14.4% in the trimester.

Without a rapid album on the shelves so far this year, the latest report on UMG results in July showed a 4.5% increase in income from one year to the next, but physical income decreased by 12.4%. UMG shares fell 24% after the July profits.

Universal Music Group refused to comment.

The slowdown could be short -lived. Billboard estimates provide that vinyl sales of the first week of the new album of 12 Swift, which begins on Friday, could exceed 1 million – breaking its own record of 859,000 for “The Torred Poets Department. “”

“Taylor Swift has a unique ability to browse the market through his decisions of what and how to publish music,” said Jaccodine, who worked with artists such as Bruce Springsteen. “The release of Swift can cause a boom in the world of music.”

Not everyone celebrates pricing. Some American record manufacturers say they are missing business.

“We support the prices because it helps us to make, and we want to be part of the wave of making things in the United States,” Alex Cushing, co-founder and president of Dallas, told CNBC.

Most vinyls are pressed abroad, said industry experts, with the largest manufacturer, GZ Media, based in the Czech Republic. GZ CEO Michal Štěrba said that the company had made the best -selling albums for artists such as Lady Gaga, Madonna and U2. On average, the company produces 1 discs out of 4 from plants from around the world, including those of Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, he added.

“Our objective is to maintain the production as close as possible to the customer, so that a file sold in the United States is also made in the United States,” Štěrba told CNBC.

If prices were imposed, said Štěrba, the costs would be passed on to consumers.

“Keeping the costs of the supply chain – regardless of the product or the country – consumers benefit from better pricing,” Štěrba said in a press release. “In the end, it is generally the customer who must pay a higher price if prices are applied.”

Cushing, a member of the Board of Directors of Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association, said that he thought there would be more American jobs if prices should apply to the vinyl.

“We could put more Americans who work hard to work with good wages,” he said. “Our company makes 2 million records per year with only 60 years of staff. If you want to develop manufacturing jobs, it would be an excellent industry.”

Cushing said that American manufacturers and his own do not have the capacity to manage the demand for an album on a Swift scale. But for artists on a smaller scale, he said, import prices could move more companies in the United States.

“Our raw materials are pricing, but with shipping costs and arrow materials on a global scale, regional shipments in the United States, associated with a drop in stocks, could help reduce costs,” said Cushing.

Some American manufacturers have pre -fulfilled additional costs earlier this year.

“The prices were definitively planned, and the industry was preparing for a long time,” said Mitrovich de Vinyl Alliance. “We have seen many companies defending themselves against this by increasing their ink, PVC and other things in the months preceding the prices.”

For many artists, physical sales are more lucrative than streaming.

On SpotifyIncome is generally between $ 0.003 and $ 0.005 per flow depending on an artist’s contract with their label, said Jaccodine. Meanwhile, artists generally benefit from 10% and 25% of the fees on physical files, according to the American Society of Composers, authors and publishers.

“Unless you’re just a handful of musicians, you essentially don’t earn enough money streaming to support,” said Jaccodine. “For large and small artists, goods such as discs, CDs, cassettes, hats, hooded sweatshirts and ticket sales are bread and butter.”

By comparison, the Eras tour of Swift, which was the most profitable tour of all time, sold more than $ 2 billion in tickets for 149 shows over two years, reported the New York Times. Meanwhile, she gained between $ 200 and $ 400 million in streaming platforms over this same period, according to Billboard figures.

Analysts expect the vinyl market to continue to develop, but not at the explosive rate seen during the pandemic.

“The vinyl market is strong and is probably in the foreseeable future, but there could still be supply problems,” said Jaccodine.

Generation Z has fueled the resurgence of vinyl, said industry experts. Almost 60% of young people aged 18 to 24 in a survey by the music manufacturer Key Production declared listening to physical music, the highest of all demographic groups. The investigation was carried out on February 27 to March 5, 2024 in the United Kingdom, and had 503 respondents.

The return to vinyl also launched an explosion in the number of “variants” released: collection editions of albums or singles with alternative covers, colorful discs or exclusive vinyl bonus tracks.

On Tiktok, “vinyl hauls” accumulates millions of views while fans show rare variants and collections, arousing demand and motivating fans such as McDaniels to buy.

“It’s a bit like Pokémon where you” do not catch them, “said McDaniels.” There is Fomo [fear of missing out] If anyone has a variant that you don’t do. “”

Experts said Gen Z’s interest in vinyl is also a response to digital exhaustion.

“So many groups are on their screens paying costs to have access to content, but never have anything, which gives them physical property,” said Cushing. “Vinyl is contrary to all the ease of listening to modern music and that is why people want it.”

No artist has capitalized on the trend than Swift.

“The Torred Poets Department” was the best album of 2024, representing more than 6% of the total album sales – more than seven times the best -selling artist, according to Luminate. Swift released 36 different album variants in the United States through digital and physical music.

“The Life of a Showgirl” is available in at least seven different variants of colored vinyl, each with a unique cover. For Swift and UMG, each exclusive edition of a vinyl recording, a CD or cassette has the potential to generate millions of additional income.

“Sales of Swift albums act as pilots for the fortune of almost the whole music industry,” said Jaccodine. “His fans are waiting with a breath for the release, but the industry too.”

For McDaniels and thousands of other superfans, the persistent question is how easy it will be to obtain exclusive variants.

“I know people think it’s crazy,” she said. “As long as a vinyl remains less than $ 75 for a new version, I have the impression that it is worth it. It is like a dependence in obtaining them, but I love to collect them.”