Taylor Swift has one of the most rabid fanbases this side of Beyonce. Her fans will come to her defense almost no matter what she does. However, that might have changed after Taylor released her new album at midnight on Thursday night.
Here is what Taylor did that has her own fans mad at her and claiming she ripped them off.
Taylor Swift accused of ripping off her fans
The new Taylor Swift album is called Midnights, and she released it at exactly midnight to coincide with the title. The album had 13 tracks on it and fans eagerly awaited the release, pre-ordering it and listening to the songs as soon as the album hit. However, Taylor’s fans’ excitement turned to anger just three hours later.
Taylor went to Instagram and revealed that she had a surprise for her fans. She said that the Midnights album had 13 songs forming a full picture of “that mystifying, mad hour.” Yet, there was a problem. She said there were other songs she recorded that didn’t make the album and she released them at 3 a.m.. Taylor proceeded to call them the 3am Tracks.
“Lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now,” she wrote.
The songs were all available to listen to online and stream for free. However, fans who pre-ordered her album accused the pop star of ripping them off by selling them an “incomplete album.”
Taylor Swift fans lash out at singer
“All those poor people who bought like 16 copies of an incomplete version,” one fan wrote on Reddit. Other fans agreed and admitted that there would likely be one album sold in the future with all the songs on it. This means, to many fans, that Taylor sold them an incomplete album and then let them know three hours later about it.
Another commenter in the thread wrote, “WAIT THE DOUBLE ALBUM TRUTHERS WERE RIGHT,” mentioning the fact that there were people who already believed she was going to release more songs and buying Midnights early would be a waste.
However, there were still Taylor Swift fans who believe she can do no wrong and people began arguing back and forth in the thread. With that in mind, the truth is that fans who bought the album have their copy of it and all the 3am Tracks songs are free to listen to online, so it isn’t like Taylor is bleeding money from anyone other than those who want these songs on an actual album.
Do you think Taylor Swift ripped off her fans with the second album release? Should she do something to make it up to the loyal fans who pre-ordered her album? Let us know in the comments below.
Shawn S. Lealos has been a freelance writer for 25 years, starting with magazines and newspapers before moving to the internet. He has been published in Inside Sports Magazine, The Daily Oklahoman, and Oklahoma Gazette and websites such as Chud.com, 411mania.com, Sporting News, CBR, ScreenRant, and more. Shawn is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle and a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is also a published author. You can follow Shawn on Twitter at @sslealos.
