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Taylor Swift<\/a><\/strong> has sparked backlash from fans of Billie Eilish<\/strong><\/a> by surprise dropping three new digital versions of her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department<\/em><\/a>, on the same day as the younger singer\u2019s third studio album release.<\/p>\n The \u201cCruel Summer\u201d singer, 34, announced on Thursday, May 16, that she would be releasing three new variants of the standard digital version of TTPD<\/em>, each featuring a \u201cfirst draft phone memo\u201d of a song from the album<\/a>, which was originally released on April 19. The three voice memo songs are \u201cThe Black Dog,\u201d \u201cCassandra\u201d and \u201cWho\u2019s Afraid of Little Old Me?\u201d Fans must purchase all three album variants in order to collect the three voice memos.<\/p>\n Taylor set the release day as Friday, May 17 \u2014 the same day that Billie, 22, released her highly anticipated album Hit Me Hard and Soft<\/em>. Many fans of the \u201cWhat Was I Made For?\u201d singer were outraged at the older pop star for seemingly attempting to overshadow the new album release.<\/p>\n \u201cThe same day as Billie\u2019s release \u2026 and y\u2019all swear that Taylor is a girl\u2019s girl,\u201d one X user wrote<\/a> in response to the news of Taylor\u2019s TTPD<\/em> drop.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved Taylor Swift but this is not done. So bad of her for trying to block young artists like Billie Eilish,\u201d another person tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHow convenient she\u2019s doing this on the day another big artist is releasing her new album,\u201d a third fan commented<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some users speculated that Taylor\u2019s move was a response to Billie seemingly throwing shade at her earlier this year when she called out the wastefulness of releasing several vinyl album variants \u2014 something the \u201cLover\u201d singer has done for years.<\/p>\n \u201cBillie\u2019s statement about artists releasing 40 vinyl packages to get people to buy more really got into her\u2026 doing this on her album release day is so nasty,\u201d one person tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a March 28 interview with Billboard<\/em>, Billie spoke out against<\/a> the practice of releasing multiple vinyl album variants because of the effects it has on the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even express to you how wasteful it is,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and 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 \u2014 and then it\u2019s some of the biggest artists in the world making f\u2013king 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Billie did not mention Taylor by name, she noted that \u201call your favorite artists\u201d are doing it, and many fans of the \u201cCassandra\u201d singer took it as a dig at her. However, Billie cleared things up<\/a> via her Instagram Stories on March 31.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay so it would be so awesome if people would stop putting words into my mouth and actually read what I said in that Billboard article,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI wasn\u2019t singling anyone out, these are industry-wide systemic issues. And when it comes to variants, so many artists release them \u2014 including ME! Which I clearly state in the article. The climate crisis is now and it\u2019s about all of us being part of the problem and trying to do better sheesh.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n