By: Jared Gudnason

October 3, 2025

On Travis and Jason Kelce’s podcast, the former’s fiancée announced her new record on Aug. 11. Forty-five minutes ago, Revival Records, my Wisconsin hometown-based small business music retailer, published on Instagram a photo of an empty “new release” shelf. Typically speaking, since today, Oct. 3, is Ms. Swift’s new album release day, the photo should seem fitting. 

However, for swept-under-the-rug marketing adherence, it’s not. After the copywritten master recordings fiasco that resulted in the re-recordings of at least four of her records, Swift landed on Republic Records’ label. That label, in tandem with Minneapolis’ very own Target, secured exclusive sales rights to The Life of a Showgirl, released at midnight on CD and vinyl LP. 

Swift herself possibly had a say in the matter, but I would not know. What is known is that, regardless of capacity, Target and Republic Records marketing executives wholly had a say.

In the post-analog age of music streaming, small music outlets are arguably dependent on, oh, I don’t know, the biggest musical superstar in the world, to turn a profit. Revival’s caption on Instagram noted that while their order was in transit, they would not have them on the empty shelves until at least this afternoon. 

Four years ago, Swift had an exclusive vinyl EP single for Record Store Day, which occurs in April as well as on Black Friday. When that came out, within three hours, it was being resold online for at least a 50 percent markup. Keep in mind that parents camped out overnight to get their kid a copy. It’s possible a similar occurrence happened this morning.