Taylor Swift Surprised Indie Record Stores With Signed Copies of Her New Album

From ELLE

Almost everything about Taylor Swift's latest album folklore has been a surprise, from the last-minute announcement of its very existence to the contents of the record itself (Production from The National's Aaron Dessner? A duet with Bon Iver?).

But this week, Swift proved she isn't done yet: On Thursday morning, Rolling Stone reports that a handful of independently-owned record stores received signed copies of folklore to sell.

Chicago’s Reckless Records said the CDs "just showed up," and a representative from the shop Bull Moose told Rolling Stone that on Tuesday night a Universal Music Group sales rep offered them the chance to participate in a "promotional sale for signed CDs by a major artist." When the Bull Moose representative learned the artist was Taylor Swift, he was "pretty floored." He explained, "The idea, as I understand it anyway, was to partner up with Record Store Day to give something super cool for indie stores to sell to drive some foot traffic into stores to help those affected by the pandemic."

Angie Roloff, the owner of Strictly Discs in Madison, Wisconsin, told Billboard that on Wednesday they "got an email from our Universal rep that we were one of the stores that had been chosen to receive 30 autographed Taylor Swift CDs." Roloff explained that they couldn't talk about it until they had the CDs in hand. "The other requirement was it has to be just local customers, not just shipping them to people outside of our immediate area."

A Zia Records representative told Rolling Stone that, due to the short notice, there was "scrambling, overnight shipping, and a lot of online communication," but because folklore appeals to both tried-and-true Swift fans and indie fans, due to the Bon Iver and The National influences, they knew "it would be worth it."

Swift sent copies across the country, including to Nashville's Grimey’s, where the singer had also covered three months of salary and healthcare for employees at the start of the pandemic. When asked whether the store had to buy the CDs, Reckless Records only told Rolling Stone: "We sold them like normal CDs, so we were able to make some money."

Below, see some of the stores who were part of the surprise:

However, if you're just seeing the news, don't get too excited. Fans rushed to get their copies, and most of the signed albums sold out pretty... swiftly.

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