Billie Eilish would want to see certain musicians modify how they go about selling albums.
In a recent interview with Maggie Baird for Billboard, where she discussed environmental sustainability, the Grammy winner criticized musicians who overstock limited edition vinyl to encourage fans to buy numerous copies of the same record and increase sales figures.
Although Eilish, 22, has engaged in the same activity, actual copies of her Happier Than Ever album were packaged in sugarcane shrink-wrap and sold on 100% recycled black vinyl. Colored variants were manufactured from recycled scraps.
“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,” said Eilish, who is 22, “which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money.”
Then 65-year-old Baird chimed in, saying, “Well, it counts toward No. 1 albums.”
“I can not even express to you how wasteful it is,” Eilish went on. People are doing it right in front of us and getting away with it left and right. As someone who really tries hard to be sustainable, as well as to involve everyone on my team in sustainability, I find it really frustrating that some of the biggest artists in the world are producing forty different vinyl packages, each with a unique feature designed to entice you to keep buying more.”