By Keeping '4:44' Off Spotify, Jay Z May Be Missing Out on $1 Million a Week

Industry insiders who spoke to 'Billboard' say that Jay Z is missing out on big bucks by keeping '4:44' off Spotify.

Rapper/musical artist and producer Jay Z attends the NBA game
Getty

Rapper/musical artist and producer Jay Z attends the NBA game

Rapper/musical artist and producer Jay Z attends the NBA game

According to "industry insiders" who spoke to Billboard, Jay Z may be missing out on up to a million bucks a week by keeping his new album 4:44 off of Spotify, which remains the largest streaming outlet in the world. This pretty exorbitant sum to all of us who aren't worth $810 million was calculated based upon the "share of the market and the average rate paid per song stream."

However, another industry vet said that Hov would've only netted $250,000 (pssshhh, who cares then?) in royalties after releasing the album on the premium paid tier of Spotify for a week. That estimate was based upon 4:44 hypothetically getting as many streams as the track currently ranked at No. 1 (Luis Fonsi's "Desperacito" remix).

Billboard also adds that, while no one knows for sure, the reason Hov pulled most of his catalogue from Spotify this past April was probably that the service's option of letting free users play anything they want on shuffle de-values music. Oh, there's also the fact that he co-owns a competing service

Both Apple Music and Tidal got a jolt in their streaming numbers after 4:44's wide release because it wasn't available to Spotify's current user base of 140 million people.

Despite the apparent monetary setback, Jay Z seems to be doing just fine.

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