"When it come to business, the bottom line is, you know, we in business to make money... how much you gross? ~ Nipsey Hussle
The Top 100 Artists YTD by Streaming Revenue, UMG's missed ride, and Steve Carless's rise to the top
Getting to the $$$
Last week, music industry insiders, HITS Daily Double shared the Top 100 YTD Streams by Artist through the first nine months of the year. The analysis created plenty of online chatter around who is moving units and who isn’t.
I want to take a deeper look at who is performing the best through the first nine months of 2022, and put some economics around it.
Here is an analysis of the Top 100 Artists Year-To-Date by Streaming Audio Revenue.
This only includes revenue derived from audio streams and is the revenue that is generated, not the revenue that the artist receives.
A couple interesting notes:
This is why Drake is able to command a reported $400M deal from UMG
NBA Youngboy knows the music environment as well as anyone. He understands that 100k new songs are uploaded daily and that the name of the game is building a large catalog. That’s why at the age of 23 he has just under 30 projects on DSP’s and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Another person who understands the catalog game is Todd Moscowitz. His label, Alamo Records, is home to Lil Durk and Rod Wave. Between the two of them, they’ll drive over $30M in streaming revenue this year. This is why Sony paid him the big bucks!
For some artists, there is a direct correlation between streaming and touring and for others there isn’t. For example, Bad Bunny, Harry Styles and The Weeknd are doing massive sold out tours while artists like NBA Youngboy and Polo G haven’t really done too many hard ticket shows yet.
A few artists on this list haven’t put out new music in years but their catalogs continue to be listened to by millions of people. Rihanna and Frank Ocean’s last full length projects were released in 2016 but they still generate significant money.
While genres are outdated, it’s safe to say that at least half of this list is comprised of artists who make rap music.
How can you not be inspired by Russ? $4M+ running through his Tunecore.
Several management companies continue to kill it with their talent including:
SalxCo with The Weeknd and Doja Cat
Roc Nation with Megan Thee Stallion, MoneyBagg Yo, DJ Khaled, and Lil Uzi Vert on the management side
SB Projects with Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande
On the label end there are several entities with multiple artists on the list:
The aforementioned Alamo Records is killing it with just under $28M from Lil Durk and Rod Wave
DJ Drama, Lake and Don Cannon’s Generation Now has generated $18M from Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow
Lil Bibby and his brother, George “G-Money” Dickinson’s Grade A Productions continues to shine with Juice WRLD’s catalog to the tune of $18M
Producer / Executive, Alex Da Kid’s label KIDinaKorner is crushing it with Imagine Dragons and the $7M+ that they’ve brought in
TDE continues to be a powerhouse with Kendrick Lamar and SZA which has raked in almost $19M
With Q4 releases coming from Drake and Taylor Swift, we’ll re-examine the list at the end of the year.
Rewind
How Universal Music Group Cancelled Their Uber - Selling Their 2% Ownership in the Ride-Hailing Company for $1M
In May of 2019, Uber had one of the most anticipated initial public offerings of a company ever. The company’s valuation reached $82.4 billion dollars. Many investors made a fortune. However, there was at least one that sold themselves short, Universal Music Group.
Here’s the crazy backstory.
In May of 2008, Universal Music Group invested in a $7.6M round of financing for Uber.com.
One problem, wrong Uber.
At this time, Uber.com was a social networking and media sharing website designed to enable users to quickly jump in to modern communication media. They co-invested with Discovery Communications and Sterling Stamos Capital Management.
Just four months later, Uber.com went under. The cap table shows that UMG owned about 14% of the company.
In early 2009, Ubercab.com is founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick.
Ubercab launched in San Francisco in June, 2010 but there was a problem. The California Public Utilities Commission and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency told UberCab it couldn't have "cab" in its name because it wasn't a properly licensed taxi company.
Instead of completely changing its name and rebranding, Kalanick approached UMG and obtained the uber.com domain name in exchange for shares in his company. At that time, those shares were worth 2% of the ride-hailing app.
And just like that, Ubercab became Uber.
Shortly thereafter, in February of 2011, Benchmark led an $11M Series A round of financing into the company on a $60M post-money valuation.
At this time, UMG decided to sell their shares back to Uber for a reported $863,000.
Fast forwarding, Uber has their initial public offering in May of 2019. The company priced its public offering at $45 a share, valuing Uber at about $82.4 billion.
Various reports indicate that UMG’s shares would have been worth as little as $363 million dollars and as much as $532 million dollars at IPO.
Ultimately, the world’s leading music company, probably shouldn’t have cancelled their Uber.
Fingerprints
Steve Carless has worked behind the scenes with some of the biggest and most important acts in music, now he’s moving to the forefront as President of a&r at Warner Records and with his label Defiant Records.
“Steve-O” is a rare breed. He’s worn many hats throughout his career but his most important one might be talent-whisperer. The man knows how to influence and move talent in the right direction.
A president job title feels limiting to an individual who acts as a confidant to some of the most talented acts in music. Here’s a little look at some of his accolades and what’s coming next.
Soon Come
A look at what VC scout programs and major labels have in common, Yo Gotti’s CMG empire and revisiting Michael Jackson’s business acumen.
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