Thursday, March 28, 2024

Kanye Sales Collapse: In Third Week, “Ye” Album Sells Total Only 39K, Mostly from Streaming

Share

Kanye West? You remember the “Ye” album release? It was, what, two weeks ago? Kanye and DefJam flew 150 people to the wilds of Wyoming for the album release. Then they had another album release party in Brooklyn. Kanye was everywhere.

Right around that time, when Kanye was supporting Donald Trump very vocally, and announcing his diagnosis of bipolar illness, a friend of mine who’s back said, “That album? No black person wants that album.”

And so, two weeks later, the “Ye” album, priced to sell at $7.99, is over. This week “Ye” sold just under 39,000 “copies.” Most of that was from streaming. There were only around 6,400 paid downloads.

Kanye’s other album, “Kids See Ghosts,” with Kid Cudi, in its second week, sold around 33,373 copies– again mostly from streaming. Paid downloads came in around 7,800.

The money Kanye is seeing from streaming isn’t much for a celebrity with his overhead. On hitsdailydouble’s Song Streaming Revenue Chart, Kanye and Kid Cudi’s songs together earned around $700,000. The licensing and expense fees are high for all those tracks. The biggest Kids See Ghosts tracks is actually listed “with Louis Prima,” the late jazz star. The Prima estate is getting prima money for that sample.

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
spot_img

Read more

In Other News