Billie Eilish is not thrilled with the state of vinyl

Creating real change in the music industry might just be what Billie Eilish was made for. Having already exhibited a long-standing commitment to sustainability in her career, Eilish, along with her mom, Maggie Baird, had some new thoughts to share with Billboard on what she sees as the sorry state of vinyl production—including how the outlet could potentially change their own practices to contribute to the cause.

“We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging,” she said, allowing that this practice “ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money and gets them more [no. 1 albums].”

“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is,” the Oscar-winner continued. “It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating… it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f–king [sic] 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more… [I]t’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money.”

“It’s all your favorite artists doing that sh-t [sic],” she continued. On Twitter/X, some Swifties took this suggestion as direct shade at Taylor, which is more of a “telling on themselves” situation than anything else. While Taylor is releasing four different color variants for The Tortured Poets Department (and has done similar rollouts in the past), she’s certainly not alone. As The Guardian points out, The Rolling Stones released at least 43 variants of their latest album, Hackney Diamonds, even though each new release had the exact same tracklist. Between the four G, U, T, and S variants of Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS album containing one secret track each, the secret tracks release containing all of them on one vinyl, and her most recent GUTS (spilled) extended edition containing the original album and all the secret tracks, there are now six different ways to consume the record.

Even Eilish herself released eight different versions of Happier Than Ever, although Billboard clarifies that they were all on 100% recycled black vinyl with recycled colored scraps that came in shrink-wrap made from sugar cane. The artist and her mom both acknowledge, however, how hard it is to go against the grain completely. “I was watching The Hunger Games and it made me think about it, because it’s like, we’re all going to do it because [it’s] the only way to play the game. It’s just accentuating this already kind of messed up way of this industry working,” Eilish said.

“[I]f Billboard, to be honest, is going to not have limits… I would love to see limits, like no more than four colors. Or some kind of rules, because you can’t fault an artist for playing the No. 1 game,” Baird added. Mom of the year award goes to her for pumping up her daughter and potentially saving the planet.