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not that 32,000 is anything to sneeze at but it appears he actually made a fortune selling his album. EDIT: which is to say the actual headline is: "Spotify pr

not that 32,000 is anything to sneeze at but it appears he actually made a fortune selling his album. EDIT: which is to say the actual headline is: "Spotify probably better hypemachine than Clear Channel, at the moment"

Shivetya 14y ago
32K which was merely the predecessor to that album's sale is icing on the cake. Sure they could negotiate more for per play of each song but to me its sounding like advertising that pays you back.
rasur 14y ago
Drug dealers have a ploy: "The first one's free, the rest you pay for". Always seemed to work out well for them financially (I'm obviously ignoring the other aspects of the ploy here). EDIT: For typo
forrestthewoods 14y ago
A fortune? A million CDs at ~$10 a pop minus apple's cut (digital) and multiple expenses/middle man cuts for physical it probably made 5 to 7 million dollars. Given the number of people involved in the creation of a CD that's pretty good but not exactly a fortune. Many fortunes will be made from this endeavor, and they'll be from things other than direct sales of music content to consumers
- sjtgraham 14y ago
  Timberlake is such a successful artist it is beyond reasonable doubt that all deals he has are on favoured nations terms so what he actually made is likely at least on the high end of your estimate, and circa $7MM in a WEEK is a fortune whichever way you slice it. Also, Suit & Tie had 9,394 radio spins in it's first week, which is the most in the chart's history, that's a first week audience of 93.4MM people [1]. I'm not sure what the royalties are for radio play in the US, but I imagine it's nothing to be sniffed at. Keep in mind, this is the first week; Timberlake is absolutely going to make a complete killing from this album and all the related opportunities that arise from it, e.g. touring. [1] http://mashable.com/2013/01/21/justin-timberlake-suit-and-tie-itunes-radio/ http://mashable.com/2013/01/21/justin-timberlake-suit-and-ti...
  - adventured 14y ago
    I own a group of radio stations. We pay about 5% of our sales to music licensing costs. Frankly I never cease to be amazed at what a great deal that is compared to how Spotify / Pandora / etc are getting screwed big time on licensing fees. Traditional radio was / sometimes still is an extremely profitable business. Once you exceed basic costs, it's all gravy minus sales commissions and some production costs on commercials etc. Radio is basically one giant sales business. It seems as though for radio, from day one, it was heavily a promotional medium for selling physical records, with the added bonus of a sales cut for the music industry. With the move to digital music, I think they stopped looking at it as a means of promotion so much and wanted to own the whole channel (as much as possible). Short sightedness, spurred on by a mixture of fear (eg Napster) and greed (opportunity to rewrite the distribution rules).
    - edwardunknown 14y ago
      Labels were dependent on radio to sell albums but things like Rdio completely replace buying music. I've been using it for a couple months and already I can't imagine buying music on iTunes or anywhere else. It really is a game changer.
notahacker 14y ago
The $32000 for 7.7 million plays might be pocket money for Timberlake, but it's still a pretty good payday compared with the £17.68 per minute he'd have earned being played to (coincidentally) ~7.7 million listeners on BBC Radio One[1] Justin Timberlake is also an outlier: he has a huge existing fanbase, had positive reviews for the album and received an avalanche of conventional publicity, including a systematic Clear Channel[2] campaign. It stretches credulity to suggest his popularity on streaming services was more a cause of than an effect of the demand to buy his album [1]http://www.stevelawson.net/2009/11/if-spotify-is-the-new-radio-the-artists-are-winning/ http://www.stevelawson.net/2009/11/if-spotify-is-the-new-rad... ... the author's revised opinion of Spotify is also interesting reading [2]http://justintimberlake.com/news/2013/tune-into-to-your-favorite-clear-channel-station-at-3-pm-local/ http://justintimberlake.com/news/2013/tune-into-to-your-favo...
naner 14y ago
That is only from Spotify streaming for the 1st week (not his total sales through Amazon, iTunes, etc).

Shivetya 14y ago

32K which was merely the predecessor to that album's sale is icing on the cake. Sure they could negotiate more for per play of each song but to me its sounding like advertising that pays you back.

rasur 14y ago

Drug dealers have a ploy: "The first one's free, the rest you pay for". Always seemed to work out well for them financially (I'm obviously ignoring the other aspects of the ploy here). EDIT: For typo

forrestthewoods 14y ago

A fortune? A million CDs at ~$10 a pop minus apple's cut (digital) and multiple expenses/middle man cuts for physical it probably made 5 to 7 million dollars. Given the number of people involved in the creation of a CD that's pretty good but not exactly a fortune. Many fortunes will be made from this endeavor, and they'll be from things other than direct sales of music content to consumers

sjtgraham 14y ago
Timberlake is such a successful artist it is beyond reasonable doubt that all deals he has are on favoured nations terms so what he actually made is likely at least on the high end of your estimate, and circa $7MM in a WEEK is a fortune whichever way you slice it. Also, Suit & Tie had 9,394 radio spins in it's first week, which is the most in the chart's history, that's a first week audience of 93.4MM people [1]. I'm not sure what the royalties are for radio play in the US, but I imagine it's nothing to be sniffed at. Keep in mind, this is the first week; Timberlake is absolutely going to make a complete killing from this album and all the related opportunities that arise from it, e.g. touring. [1] http://mashable.com/2013/01/21/justin-timberlake-suit-and-tie-itunes-radio/ http://mashable.com/2013/01/21/justin-timberlake-suit-and-ti...
- adventured 14y ago
  I own a group of radio stations. We pay about 5% of our sales to music licensing costs. Frankly I never cease to be amazed at what a great deal that is compared to how Spotify / Pandora / etc are getting screwed big time on licensing fees. Traditional radio was / sometimes still is an extremely profitable business. Once you exceed basic costs, it's all gravy minus sales commissions and some production costs on commercials etc. Radio is basically one giant sales business. It seems as though for radio, from day one, it was heavily a promotional medium for selling physical records, with the added bonus of a sales cut for the music industry. With the move to digital music, I think they stopped looking at it as a means of promotion so much and wanted to own the whole channel (as much as possible). Short sightedness, spurred on by a mixture of fear (eg Napster) and greed (opportunity to rewrite the distribution rules).
  - edwardunknown 14y ago
    Labels were dependent on radio to sell albums but things like Rdio completely replace buying music. I've been using it for a couple months and already I can't imagine buying music on iTunes or anywhere else. It really is a game changer.

notahacker 14y ago

The $32000 for 7.7 million plays might be pocket money for Timberlake, but it's still a pretty good payday compared with the £17.68 per minute he'd have earned being played to (coincidentally) ~7.7 million listeners on BBC Radio One[1] Justin Timberlake is also an outlier: he has a huge existing fanbase, had positive reviews for the album and received an avalanche of conventional publicity, including a systematic Clear Channel[2] campaign. It stretches credulity to suggest his popularity on streaming services was more a cause of than an effect of the demand to buy his album [1]http://www.stevelawson.net/2009/11/if-spotify-is-the-new-radio-the-artists-are-winning/ http://www.stevelawson.net/2009/11/if-spotify-is-the-new-rad... ... the author's revised opinion of Spotify is also interesting reading [2]http://justintimberlake.com/news/2013/tune-into-to-your-favorite-clear-channel-station-at-3-pm-local/ http://justintimberlake.com/news/2013/tune-into-to-your-favo...

naner 14y ago

That is only from Spotify streaming for the 1st week (not his total sales through Amazon, iTunes, etc).