A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Record companies have a few tricks to give old albums a boost on the charts. Stephen Thompson of NPR Music spotted a few, all in this week's Billboard magazine.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: One is the deluxe reissue. That's when never-before-heard songs are tacked on to existing albums. Just last week, Ariana Grande used that exact playbook to propel last year's "Eternal Sunshine" from No. 87 all the way back to No. 1.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TWILIGHT ZONE")
ARIANA GRANDE: (Singing) And it's not like I'm still not over you.
THOMPSON: Another trick involves releasing physical editions of albums that had only been available digitally. Back in 2022, the singer-songwriter Ethel Cain released her debut album, "Preacher's Daughter," but without any physical additions. It's a gorgeous record, but it's a challenging one, and it failed to chart at all. And yet when Ethel Cain released the album on vinyl this month, almost three years after its debut, "Preacher's Daughter" made its very first appearance on the Billboard charts this week - all the way up at No. 10.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICAN TEENAGER")
ETHEL CAIN: (Singing) Alone again. Say what you want, but say it like you mean it, with your fists for once.
THOMPSON: This sort of maneuver tends to yield only short-term chart success. Last September, Travis Scott shipped all the preordered vinyl copies of his decade-old mixtape, "Days Before Rodeo, " at the same time. That sent the album rocketing from outside the top 100 all the way to No. 1. The next week, it disappeared from the chart entirely. Now, it's worth mentioning that the current No. 1 album belongs to Playboi Carti. It's called "Music." And so far, it's only available digitally, but it has physical copies on the way. And when the album needs a boost up the charts in the coming weeks, those physical editions are sure to do the trick.
Stephen Thompson, NPR Music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RATHER LIE")
PLAYBOI CARTI: (Rapping) Give you my card, tell you, swipe that. It wasn't you. It's me. It ain't me. It's you. I know it's hard to see. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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