The two pop music titans, locked in a close contest for the top of next week's album chart, are stoking fans' competitive spirit with a variety of digital tactics.
这两位流行音乐巨头在下周的专辑排行榜上势均力敌，他们正在用各种各样的数字策略激发粉丝们的竞争精神。

“Hit Me Hard and Soft,' the new album from Billie Eilish, left, is competing with Taylor Swift's “The Tortured Poets Department” for No. 1 on next week's Billboard 200 chart.
比莉·艾莉什(左)的新专辑《Hit Me Hard and Soft》将与泰勒·斯威夫特的《the cruel Poets Department》争夺下周公告牌200单曲榜的冠军。
A cold war between pop music titans — or at least their mobilizing fan bases and record labels — turned into a digital arms race this week as both Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish gunned for the No. 1 spot on next week's Billboard album chart.
流行音乐巨头之间的冷战——或者至少是他们的粉丝群和唱片公司之间的冷战——本周变成了一场数字军备竞赛，泰勒·斯威夫特和比莉·艾莉什都在争夺下周公告牌专辑榜的冠军。
Swift, 34, has occupied the top of the Billboard 200 for the past four weeks with her blockbuster new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which has earned more than 3.6 million equivalent album sales so far (counting physical purchases, downloads and streams). But Eilish's well-reviewed new album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” is challenging for No. 1 in its debut, as its 10 songs prove popular on streaming services like Spotify.
34岁的斯威夫特凭借其轰动的新专辑《被折磨的诗人部》在过去四周占据了公告牌200单曲榜的榜首，到目前为止，这张专辑的销量已经超过360万(包括实体购买、下载和流媒体)。但艾莉什广受好评的新专辑《Hit Me Hard and Soft》在发行之初就挑战了榜首的位置，因为专辑中的10首歌曲在Spotify等流媒体服务上很受欢迎。
If only it were that simple.
要是有那么简单就好了。
Already, some impassioned followers of the two artists had been stoking a rivalry, dating back to comments Eilish made in March about “some of the biggest artists in the world” selling many vinyl versions of the same album, “which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money.”
这两位艺术家的一些热情的粉丝已经在煽动竞争，这可以追溯到艾利什在3月份发表的评论，他说“世界上一些最伟大的艺术家”销售了同一张专辑的许多黑胶版本，“这提高了销量，增加了数字，让他们赚了更多的钱。”
The tactic, which Eilish called “wasteful” and damaging to the environment, has been widespread but used especially broadly — and effectively — by Swift. (Even before those comments, Eilish’s brother and main collaborator, Finneas, had once been heard on a hot mic joking about being “sued by Taylor Swift” after performing with an artist who had criticized her work.)
这种被艾利什称为“浪费”和破坏环境的策略已经被广泛使用，但斯威夫特使用得尤其广泛和有效。(甚至在这些评论之前，艾莉什的哥哥和主要合作伙伴芬尼斯(Finneas)就曾在一个热麦克风上开玩笑说，在与一位批评她作品的艺术家合作后，“被泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)起诉”。)
Eilish, 22, said later that she had not meant to single out any artist with her vinyl comments and added that she had participated in the practice, too. (Both artists’ work remains available in a variety of physical formats, though Eilish has stressed sustainability.)
22岁的艾利什后来说，她发表黑胶唱片评论并不是要针对任何艺人，她还说自己也参与了这种做法。(两位艺术家的作品仍然以各种形式存在，尽管艾利什强调可持续性。)
Still, when Swift pre-empted the release of Eilish’s album last week with three special digital editions of “Tortured Poets,” available for 24 hours and including previously unheard “first-draft phone memo” demos, many saw the move as pointed. Especially online, where pop fan allegiance can be a blood sport, the matchup became one to watch.
尽管如此，当斯威夫特上周抢先发布了《折磨的诗人》的三个特别数字版本时，许多人认为这一举动是有针对性的，这些版本可以在24小时内使用，包括以前从未听说过的“电话备忘录初稿”演示。特别是在网络上，流行歌迷的忠诚可以成为一项血腥的运动，这场比赛成为了一场值得观看的比赛。
Eilish soon released her own new digital edition of “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” which added isolated vocal tracks for each song. Such maneuvers — in which listeners invested in the chart success of their favorites are incentivized to stream and buy more with bonus content — are popular and common, especially amid close contests for bragging rights, in the chess game that is the modern music business. But it didn’t end there.
不久，Eilish发行了她自己的新数字版《Hit Me Hard and Soft》，为每首歌添加了独立的人声轨道。这种策略——听众投资于他们最喜欢的歌曲在排行榜上的成功，被激励去流媒体播放，并购买更多的奖励内容——在现代音乐行业的棋局中很流行，也很常见，尤其是在为炫耀权利而激烈竞争的情况下。但事情并没有就此结束。
On Tuesday, Swift released a remix of her hit “Fortnight”; on Wednesday, Eilish posted a new remix of “L’Amour De Ma Vie.” And on Thursday, the final day of Billboard’s tracking week, Eilish expanded her album again, releasing limited edition versions of each song both slowed down and sped up. (Eilish’s labels, Darkroom/Interscope, also discounted “Hit Me Hard and Soft” to $4.99 as an iTunes download — a more popular chart-minded move in an earlier era of digital sales — while Swift’s “Tortured Poets” remained at $14.99. Swift’s “Fortnight” remix was priced at 69 cents, less than the typical single price of 99 cents or $1.29.)
周二，斯威夫特发布了她的热门单曲《Fortnight》的混音版;周三，艾利什发布了一张《爱情》(L’amour De Ma Vie)的新混音版。周四，也就是公告牌追踪周的最后一天，艾莉什再次扩展了她的专辑，发行了每首歌的限量版，既有慢速版，也有加速版。(艾莉什的唱片公司Darkroom/Interscope也将《Hit Me Hard and Soft》在iTunes上的下载价格降至4.99美元——在早期的数字销售时代，这是一种更受欢迎的排行榜策略——而斯威夫特的《酷刑诗人》则保持在14.99美元。斯威夫特的《Fortnight》混音版定价为69美分，低于普通单曲99美分或1.29美元的价格。)
Then, on Thursday evening, with six hours left in the sales window for the week, Swift made what seemed to be a final push, releasing three additional digital versions for sale on her website, each of which featured a new live track from her Eras Tour performances earlier this month in Paris. The special editions were made available for one day only.
然后，周四晚上，在本周的销售窗口还剩六个小时的时候，斯威夫特似乎做了最后的努力，在她的网站上又发布了三个数字版本的销售，每个版本都有她本月早些时候在巴黎举行的Eras Tour巡演中的一首新现场曲目。特别版只提供一天。
Midweek predictions, which predated some of the latest bonus releases, gave Swift the slight edge, with an estimated 350,000 equivalent units to Eilish’s 300,000, according to Hits magazine, whose totals sometimes vary from the official count. (Eilish’s previous album, “Happier Than Ever,” sold 238,000 in its first week, slightly less than the 313,000 units her debut sold in 2019.)
根据《Hits》杂志的数据，周中预测，在一些最新的奖金发行之前，斯威夫特略微领先，估计有35万张相当于艾莉什的30万张，该杂志的统计数字有时与官方统计有所不同。(艾莉什的上一张专辑《Happier Than Ever》在发行第一周卖出了23.8万张，略低于她2019年首张专辑的31.3万张。)
Billboard said the race “could be a close one.” And even unaffiliated fan groups — Arianators, Katycats, Little Monsters and so on — were being called upon by fans to line up behind one side or the other.
《公告牌》表示，这场竞选“可能势均力敌”。甚至连无关联的粉丝团体——Arianators、Katycats、Little Monsters等等——也被粉丝们召集起来站在一边或另一边。
Representatives for Eilish and Swift declined to comment. The final count will be revealed early next week.
艾利什和斯威夫特的代表拒绝置评。最终计票结果将于下周初公布。