Billie Eilish has criticized her music industry peers for their “wasteful” practice of releasing numerous vinyl versions of albums to boost sales.
The 22-year-old Grammy winner, who recently revealed she was partying until 6 a.m. after winning her Oscar, spoke out during an interview about her sustainability efforts with Billboard published on Thursday.
“For some reason, it’s very important for some artists to make all kinds of different vinyl and packaging,” he said. “Which increases sales and numbers and makes them more money and makes them more.”
“I can’t even tell you how wasteful it is,” he continued. ‘I find it really frustrating as someone who really tries my best to be sustainable and do the best I can and try to involve everyone on my team in sustainability.
“And then there are some of the biggest artists in the world who create fucking 40 different vinyl packages that have something unique and different just to keep you buying more.”
Billie Eilish criticized her music industry peers for their “wasteful” practice of releasing numerous vinyl versions of albums to boost sales; photographed in February
“For some reason, it’s very important for some artists to make all kinds of different vinyl and packaging,” he said. ‘What increases sales and increases numbers and gives them more money and gives them more’ on the Happier Than Ever album cover photo
The Bad Guy singer is not exempt from this practice as her last studio album, Happier Than Ever, was available on eight different vinyl variations.
However, the variants were “100% recycled black vinyl, plus recycled scraps for the colored variants and shrink plastic made from sugar cane,” according to Billboard.
Eilish went on to say that she finds it “wasteful” and “irritating” to witness “all your favorite artists doing that shit,” prioritizing their sales figures and financial gains above all else.
While the singer refrained from specifying names, a multitude of well-known artists, including Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, Olivia Rodrigo and Blink-182, have released numerous vinyl versions of their recent albums.
As for how Eilish’s fans are responding to her sustainability efforts, Eilish’s mother, Maggie Baird, told the outlet: ‘The truth is, you have to do it anyway.
‘Artists can cast a giant shadow of influence. If you’re not perfect, but you’re influencing many, many, many people to do better, that multiplies hundreds of times.’
Toward the end of the interview, Eilish reflected on the widespread apathy towards the severity of the climate crisis, pointing out the common feeling of resignation: ‘What’s the point? We’re all going to die anyway.’
‘Believe me, I feel the same way too. But ‘what’s the point?’ It goes both ways: ‘What’s the point? I can do what I want. We’re all going to die anyway.’ Or, ‘What’s the point? Might as well do the right thing while I’m here. That is my opinion,” he explained.
The Bad Guy singer is not exempt from this practice as her last studio album, Happier Than Ever, was available on eight different vinyl variations. However, the variants were “100% recycled black vinyl, plus recycled scraps for the colored variants and shrink plastic made from sugar cane,” according to Billboard.
While the singer refrained from specifying names, a multitude of well-known artists, including Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, Olivia Rodrigo and Blink-182, have released numerous vinyl versions of their recent albums, Swift pictured in 2019.
Swift’s 1989 album has several variants
In February, the musician revealed that her next album had been mastered and hinted that she would delay its release until Ariana Grande’s album came out first.
The upcoming album will follow Eilish’s previous works, including 2021’s Happier Than Ever and When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? of 2019.
In 2022, he also released a two-track EP titled Guitar Songs and delivered an acclaimed single titled What Was I Made For? for the Barbie soundtrack.
The single won the Oscar for Best Original Song.