Taylor Swift gave less than 24 hours' notice when she dropped her new "Folklore" album last month. And her people gave little advance warning to America's indie record stores this week that they could sell a limited number of autographed "Folklore" CDs on Thursday.
"We were asked Tuesday night if we were interested -- of course, we were -- and were given very few details until Wednesday night," said Electric Fetus music buyer Jim Novak. "Universal [Music] and Taylor's management offered to sell us 30 signed CDs at regular price, and they requested we limit online sales to curbside pickup to keep the sales local."
After announcing the news on Twitter on Thursday, the Fetus sold out in about 20 minutes at regular price.
"The store started getting calls about 10 minutes before we even announced on Twitter that we had them, because some East Coast stores had started getting theirs and posting," Novak said.
Various stores -- including Down in the Valley in Golden Valley, Reckless Records in Chicago and Grimey's in Nashville -- received limited autographed CDs.
Swift, who traditionally markets new albums with elaborate campaigns including exclusives for Target, did not explain why she rolled out this deal with independent stores. However, "Folklore" certainly has an indie rock sound, with contributions from the National's Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver. It is the best selling album of 2020.
Swift did reach out to Grimey's in her home base of Nashville at the beginning of the pandemic, paying for health insurance for all employees for three months.
The Fetus sold half its copies in store (limited to 15 customers at a time) and half for curbside pickup with online orders.
"Unfortunately, we had to take down our announcement tweet, as the comments got pretty ugly after we let everyone know we were sold out," Novak said.
In Cincinnati, Taylor Keeton, an avid sports fan with a beard, scored the second to last signed CD at Shake It Records and tweeted: "Was pretty tough scene watching little girls come in after me and not get a copy. Welcome to life, little ones."
Ouch.
