Is Taylor Swift exploiting her fans? Yes, but...

Love it or hate it, your favorite pop star is a person and a product. How much are you willing to pay?

Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl , smashed records for first week album sales. This was in part due to all the different limited-edition variants that went on sale; some for only 24 hours.

Talk about pressuring your fans! Is this business strategy fan service, or fan exploitation?

Where’s the line? Brittany sits down with Stephen Thompson , host for NPR Music and Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Ann Powers , NPR music critic and correspondent, to get into the life of a business woman, why they think Swift had to make this album, and whether or not it's worth the cost.

Read Ann's (mostly positive) review of The Life of a Showgirl . (0:00) Is Taylor exploiting her fans? Yes and No! (3:08) Taylor's business strategy isn't hers alone... (6:11) Why Taylor is a proxy for all our rage (10:43) Why vinyl sales in general have skyrocketed (13:46) How the charts impact the music industry (15:50) Why Taylor Swift HAD to make 'The Life of a Showgirl' (18:15) Does greed make bad art? (21:00) Responding to your comments :) Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: @bmluse For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at .

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