It’s A Rich Man’s World...
Taylor, we need to talk about something a little sensitive. Money. I feel like it’s a pretty safe bet to assume you’ve never struggled financially. Before you were in the public eye, your parents were stockbrokers which means it’s pretty likely you lived on the plush side of comfortable. Now you have an ever-expanding exorbitant amount of wealth, that unless you do something really stupid has generations of your family set for life. That means you’re unaware and in a sense ignorant to (through lack of experience) financial struggle or having to be keenly aware of what money you spend and how much. Part of me is wary of posting this but mostly I’m speaking out because you’ve said yourself you look to us for constructive criticism. This is in no way meant to attack or vilify anyone. The only way to get past ignorance is through education. You say you see everything so here goes…
This fandom at large and yes, this absolutely includes Taylor has a money blindness problem. We can see it in the way some people had to turn down Secret Sessions because they couldn’t afford travel and accomodation on such short notice. To me, that doesn’t make sense because (and I’ll put it bluntly) Taylor is a multimillionaire who could have easily arranged to pay for them, if she wanted them there that badly. It immediately adds to this sense of elitist ‘us’ vs. ‘them’. Not good. We can also see it in the fact that although the Reputation Stadium Tour is the highest grossing US tour in history and that’s an amazing achievement, it was made possible by the fact that tickets to the tour were the most expensive they’ve ever been. Some people couldn’t afford to go. I wasn’t going for months because in the wheelchair section, due to their placement in the stadium, they were originally $250 each. But I caved because I got FOMO. The prices went down because the stadium wasn’t selling out.
I’m lucky that in my family’s financial situation, we live comfortably and don’t struggle. We’re not made of money but when I caved, it didn’t set me back too far. That wouldn’t have been the same for everyone. If others caved like I did, it might have cost them a lot more, literally and figuratively. The reason we caved? We felt like lesser fans. Confronted with the fact that incredibly privileged people who can afford to buy lots of merch and attend multiple shows are more noticeable to you, I at least felt that if I didn’t find some way to go, I was losing my shot with you (not that being there in the wheelchair section made a scrap of difference but that’s another story.)
And now we enter the Lover era. An era which is branded as more inclusive and aware. But it’s not really, is it? Your team @taylornation told a fan when she only had $3 in her account to go ahead and buy Me! because it was only $1.29 (how the hell is that OK?!). There are exclusive limited edition merch sales for 24 hours, making us feel if we don’t buy, then we’re bad fans but you’re immediately excluding those who would need to SAVE to do so, fully aware that if we post pictures online in merch, there’s a greater chance we’ll be noticed by you. Exclusive vinyls which are NOT cheap. You’ve partnered with Amazon it seems, providing them with exclusive content which people have to again pay for. Some people can’t afford monthly fees even if it’s only $12.99, I know I can’t.
Just yesterday, a new partnership between you and CapitalOne was announced, with the incentive to get new cards with them for exclusive content and one can assume, access to tour presale when the time comes. Getting a new credit card is not something you can cancel after a 30 day free trial. It’s a big deal and requires a lot. It’s a life decision. But people will do it because it’s you even if realistically they’re putting themselves in debt or other trouble. The icing on this cake is of course the FOUR deluxe editions of Lover that we now know will include your very valuable diaries. If you live in the US, buying the four editions at Target isn’t cheap but it’s relatively doable depending. But if you’re an international fan, forget it. Add shipping on top of the cost and here in Australia you’re looking at close to $250 for four versions of the same main product and 30 pages difference. Again, people will do it because it’s you, even if it means struggling to pay rent or other bills or even buy food.
I know I said it’s ignorance but this is where I have to get a little harsh. There’s a difference between ignorance and assumption based greed that honestly looks a little manipulative of our relationship with you. You know so many of us will do anything for you, in fact you count on that as part of your business plan (everyone in the public eye does) and that’s OK to an extent but I think we crossed that line a while ago. You say you see everything and yet when people point out stuff like this, you stay silent. Maybe it’s just that the right people who crowd your dash self-reblogging aren’t sharing this stuff because it doesn’t affect them, but come on. I know you’re an incredibly generous person Taylor who is very philanthropic but the way your business model runs right now kind of looks counterintuitive to that. It looks like money means more value which doesn’t sit well with me and so many others.
I hope you recieve this as the gentle callout it’s intended to be. If I’ve offended you or anyone else, I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention. Just trying to make things a little fairer
@taylorswift @taylornation
