Taylor Swift announced her 12th studio album Tuesday in a clip from a coming episode of Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast, revealing its blurred-out cover art and a title: The Life of a Showgirl. The full episode will drop late Wednesday, marking Swift’s first major interview in nearly two years. Long story short, we’re so back.
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As a pop music junkie, the clip had me bracing myself for a new, orange-drenched era of lore and easter eggs. (For the non-Swifties, Taylor uses a different color to represent each of her albums; this one got a nice tangerine hue.) But as a shopping reporter who covers tech gadgets, I was also on my detective shit. I couldn’t help but wonder: Which wired headphones is Taylor wearing in her New Heights appearance?
A quick reverse Google Images search led me to the $109.99 Sony MDR-7506s, and a rep for Sony confirmed that they’re a match.
It’s worth pointing out that there’s a good chance these headphones were provided to Taylor by the podcast or studio where she recorded, and they’re not a pair she owns herself. That said, they are different from the ones Travis and his brother/co-host Jason are wearing in the clip.
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In any case, the MDR-7506s feature a foldable, closed-ear design with 40mm drivers. Mashable’s headphones expert Bethany Allard, who dabbles in podcasting in her free time, hasn’t tried them herself but tells me they’re quite popular in the audio world.
“They have great sound quality for editing, are comfortable to wear for longer periods of time, and aren’t super expensive,” Allard said, “so they’re accessible to people at all levels of audio.” She pointed out that they’re mentioned in a 2024 gear guide compiled by Transom, an audio storytelling nonprofit. They’ve also been name-dropped by one of NPR’s former Tiny Desk engineers.
Taylor’s full New Heights episode will be available at 7 p.m. ET on Aug. 13. While her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, doesn’t have an official release date, CBS reports that it has a pre-order ship date of Oct. 13.
You can watch Swift’s New Heights appearance on YouTube or listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, Pandora, Spotify, and Wondery.
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Taylor Swift
