Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign's 'Vultures 1' Income Revealed

J. Cole is teasing The Fall Off again. If he and Playboi Carti release their albums this year, 2024 might be goated. In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• J. Cole teases The Fall Off with new song snippet 🔥 

• Kodak Black throws rocks at photographers upon release from jail 😳

• Why Vultures might be Kanye’s most profitable album 💰️ 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

‘Vultures’ Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new week and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Daily Double, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from Feb 9 to 15.

First-week numbers for Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures are in and 10 out of the 16 songs charted on HDD, grossing $582,014 from 125M streams. “Carnival” was the biggest, earning $109K from 23M streams. See more about Kanye’s total Vultures income below.

J. Cole Previews New Track & Teases ‘The Fall Off’

J. Cole released a Smack DVD-inspired vlog this week, and sandwiched in the middle of the 9-minute BTS footage was a new song preview. It’s a promising sign that his long-awaited album, The Fall Off, is near.

Titled Might Delete Later, Vol. 1 (the title suggests he’s been hanging out with Drake too much), the vlog opens with J. Cole signing his autograph on a poster for The Off Fall. Day-in-the-life style, it shows snippets of his ongoing tour with Drake, a backstage link-up with Lil Durk, and studio sessions with Tay Keith.

At the 4:33 mark, the song begins. “I said I was finished but I want another two summers/ Hall of famer hungrier than all the newcomers,” J. Cole raps. The bars are vicious, and he suggests what’s to come is an AOTY contender. “The Fall Off is like Hov dropping Reasonable Doubt last,” he says.

The whole vlog is worth a watch for the editing and aesthetic alone, nailing Smack DVD's 2000s raw footage feel—it’s better than most music videos.

Kodak Black Throws Rocks at Photographer as He’s Released From Jail

Kodak Black was released from jail this week and immediately chose violence, getting into a confrontation with reporters outside. Walking out of the Broward County Jail, Kodak got agitated with the press and began throwing rocks. Doubling down, he also threatened to assault a reporter.

With a rap sheet that dates back to 2015, news of his arrest is as common as Nick Cannon welcoming another child. He could have a show called How to Not Get Away With Freedom (Kodak’s version). The footage of the rock-hurling incident will be in episode 10—there’s a lot of ground to cover before then.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and let me tell you, this is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen,” said the Florida news reporter involved in the incident. Not completely coherent, Kodak can be heard mumbling and rapping the lyrics to Piles’ “How I’m Living” as he walks down the steps of the County Jail in the clip below.

The rocks injured the cameraman, and a police report has been filed, but no word yet on whether this will be considered another probation violation.

Kodak was arrested in December for oxycodone possession, evidence tampering, and improper parking. The drug charge was dismissed, but he pleaded guilty to probation violation and was released on Feb 21 for time served.

Why ‘Vultures’ Might Be Kanye’s Most Profitable Album Yet

Billboard estimates that Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures album pulled in just over $1M in revenue from first-week sales. The seven-figure revenue is standard for a Kanye release, but as his first independent album, it’s giving him a larger cut of the profits than ever before.

Below, look at the numbers and how they shockingly compare to his first-record deal rates.

What was the ‘Vultures’ revenue after distribution?

According to estimates, the Vultures’ revenue can be credited to $892K from around 169M streams and roughly $145K from sales. The album’s distributor, Label Engine, is the only partner with which revenue needs to be split, and they advertise that their clients keep 82.5%.

For an artist as big as Kanye, he can likely leverage a higher take-home percentage. Billboard ballparked 5% for distribution, leaving Kanye and Ty Dolla $ign with $986K from the first week.

What would the ‘Vultures' revenue look like with a label?

In 2020, Kanye tweeted photos of his old contracts, revealing he earned 14% royalties on albums sold in the US during his The College Dropout days. However, record labels give artists an advance, and his contract stated he would only start earning a profit after his royalty income recouped the advance.

Let’s say his advance was $1M. If we do some quick math, Vultures would need to generate over $7M ($7,142,857.14 to be exact) to repay his advance and start earning money from the 14% royalty.

Alternatively, with no advance, Vultures would need to earn over $7M for Kanye to gross $1M at a 14% royalty rate.

New Music Friday

Enjoy new Kanye, Lil Baby, and Lil Wayne features on French Montana’s Mac & Cheese 5. Here’s all the music you can listen to now—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ INSANO (Nitro Mega) by Kid Cudi

• 💿️ Robophobia by Earthgang

• 💿️ Mac & Cheese 5 by French Montana

•  💿️ 4Ever by Stunna4Vegas

• 💿️ Rent Due by Hit-Boy, LaRussell

• 🎶 “Old Days” by Lil Durk

• 🎶 “Kisses” by Young Thug, James Blake, Strick

• 🎶 “Himothy’” by Quavo

• 🎶 “GANG$TA” by A$AP Rocky, Anderson .Paak, Free Nationals

• 🎶 “I Will” by Central Cee

• 🎶 “Karma” by Isaiah Rashad, SiR

• 🎶 “Going To The Top” by DDG

• 🎶 “Richtivities” by Saweetie

• 🎶 “Problems” by Pusha T, Ray Vaughn

• BuzzFeed sells Complex to NTWRK for $109M USD. After acquiring the media company for nearly $300M USD less than three years ago.

• The Kid LAROI shares the BTS of his life in ‘Kids Are Growing Up’ documentary trailer. Set to be released on Amazon Prime on February 29th.

• Only 19% of artists on Spotify had over 1,000 monthly listeners in 2023. Under Spotify’s new rules, artists must have a minimum number of unique listeners for a track to be eligible for royalty payments.

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