Billie Eilish Criticizes Fellow Artists Over “Frustrating” Tactics To Increase Album Sales

While sharing her music with fans and enjoying her time in the spotlight, Billie Eilish is more than an award-winning artist. Although holding numerous awards and releasing two albums, the singer is also a massive supporter when it comes to environmental activism. Always willing to help conserve resources, Eilish recently criticized fellow artists who released several vinyl formats in order to boost album sales. Calling it “very frustrating”, Eilish hoped to use her voice to urge change and to hopefully make vinyl more sustainable. 

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Speaking with Billboard alongside her mother Maggie Baird, Eilish revealed her disdain for the surge in vinyl. “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, which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money.” She continued, “I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable — and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f–king 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.”

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Billie Eilish Promotes Change With Her Own Vinyl

Considering it “wasteful”, Eilish pointed to singers who cared more about making money than the environment. “It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that sh-t.”

For fans of Eilish, they might remember that her second album Happier Than Ever supported eight different vinyls. But unlike other artists, the popstar made sure that each vinyl was produced using 100 percent recycled vinyl. Even the shrink wrap used came from sugar cane. While wanting the industry to change, Eilish admitted, “We’re all going to do it because [it’s] the only way to play the game. It’s just accentuating this already kind of messed up way of this industry working.”

As for her mother, Baird, she concluded, “Everybody knows the clock is ticking. The truth is, touring is in jeopardy. The music industry is in jeopardy. If you don’t do it now, you’ll be forced to do it in the future.”

(Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Image)

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