Taylor Swift has put out a piano version of ‘Patient Zero’ as a one-track digital single, listed on Apple Music at $0.69, and it went on sale on the opening day of a new Billboard tracking week. The original is the song that just ended Ella Langley’s record run at the top of the Hot 100, so the new edition hands fans one more thing to buy while the chart race is still open.

The release was announced, not sprung. When Swift opened pre-orders for the song, she offered three versions: a CD single with a two-sided cover, plus an acoustic and a piano version, each with its own pair of photographs of her. The piano edition now exists as a download as well as a disc. MusicBrainz logs it as a separate single built on a new recording that runs 3:46, the same length as the original, and the Apple Music listing credits the copyright to Swift herself.

The chart numbers explain why the timing matters. In its debut week, ‘Patient Zero’ drew 34.5 million official U.S. streams, 28.5 million in radio audience and 65,000 in sales, according to Luminate figures reported by Billboard. That made it Swift’s 16th Hot 100 No. 1 and her 10th to debut at the summit, which ties Drake for the most No. 1 debuts in the chart’s history. Billboard generally counts alternate versions of a song toward the original’s total, so a cheap new edition works as extra fuel for the same entry rather than a rival to it.

It is also a test for the song itself. The original is a midtempo pop track that Swift wrote and produced with Max Martin and Shellback, anchored by a Celtic folk-inspired fiddle hook. Critics split on it. Jon Pareles of The New York Times called the pop structure “airtight”, Roisin O’Connor of The Independent found the lyrics “regurgitated”, and Craig Jenkins of Vulture took aim at their “bookishness”. A version billed as piano moves attention away from the Martin and Shellback production and toward the words, which is exactly where the reviews disagreed. For a song that tells the story of an emotionally abusive relationship through medical metaphors, that is a bet on the lyric.

The format fits a pattern. ‘Patient Zero’ is the lead single from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, the deluxe edition of Swift’s twelfth studio album, and Variety reported that the Encore tracks filled four of the top five Hot 100 slots in the song’s first week. Before the piano single, two 7-inch vinyl editions were sold for 24 hours as collector’s items, and an eight-minute expanded video went to Apple Music and then YouTube. Each new format reaches the same buyers through a different door.

The digital piano single is dated October 9 on Apple Music, the Friday that opened the tracking week for the Hot 100 dated October 24. The CD editions, piano and acoustic included, are scheduled to ship on October 13. The original song came out on September 25 and debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated October 10. The chart dated October 17, which covers October 2 to 8, will show whether it held the top spot in its second week.

The acoustic edition, for now, is listed only as a CD. The piano ‘Patient Zero’ is a second way into a song that is already at the top, and the next two charts will show whether a quieter version can help keep it there.

Tags: pop, Taylor Swift, Patient Zero, The Life of a Showgirl, Billboard Hot 100