Try to think of another time when a star released an album with a physical-only bonus track — but that physical product was only made available online, through one website, with a weeks-long shipping delay. Therein lies the marketing genius of Taylor Swift’s Folklore, which dropped on Friday, sans one rare track.

It’s not uncommon for an artist to offer bonus tracks on physical products like CDs and vinyl records: Such tactics help boost the appeal of owning a physical album and can drive consumers to spend more money in the streaming age. Swift has offered physical bonus tracks several times in past releases, encouraging fans to pick up special deluxe editions in hard copy for those Easter-egg songs. But fans can normally rush to a Target, Walmart, or Best Buy on release day to get their hands on these extra-precious versions. The cassettes, CDs, and vinyl versions of Swift’s Folklore — which feature the not-yet-heard bonus song “The Lakes” — are only available to purchase on taylorswift.com, and those items are not due to ship for half a month at the earliest.

This decision to limit the special album versions’ sale to Swift’s official site was most likely influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left many physical businesses facing supply-chain problems or closures. But if Swift had wanted to get “The Lakes” into the hands of fans instantly, she still could’ve allowed fans to digitally download the song upon placing their physical orders.


According to Swift’s official website, CDs are expected to ship within two to three weeks of their purchase. Cassettes, on the other hand, take eight weeks, while vinyl takes a whopping 16 weeks — just in time for Thanksgiving. While this drawn-out timeline could very well be a result of manufacturing necessities, it’s most likely intentional: Making fans wait two to 16 weeks for an extra song is a great way of keeping fans interested in an album, long after the rest of the record drops.

The closest analog for the relation the new album bears to its predecessor might be one that’d seem ancient to much of Swift’s audience: U2 following “Achtung Baby” with “Zooropa” while still touring behind the previous album. It’s hard to remember now that a whole year and a half separated those two related projects; In that very different era, it seemed like a ridiculously fast follow-up. But the real comparison lies in how U2, having been rewarded for making a pretty gutsy change of pace with “Achtung,” seemed to say: You’re okay with a little experimentation? Let’s see how you like it when we really boil things down to our least commercial impulses, then — while we’ve still got you in the mood.