After four long years, JAY-Z finally dropped his thirteenth solo studio album 4:44 back at the end of June. Though it started off as a TIDAL and Sprint exclusive, JAY’s album then hit up streaming sites such as Apple Music and Amazon Music. One streaming site that has been left out completely is Spotify.
According to Billboard, by leaving 4:44 off of Spotify — the largest streaming outlet in the world — JAY-Z could be losing up to $1 million USD a week. This calculation is based upon the “share of the market and the average rate paid per song stream.” However, another industry insider states HOVA’s payout would actually be closer to $250,000 USD in royalties a week, based on the hypothetical fact that it would be getting as many streams as the currant ranked No. 1 track: Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” remix featuring Justin Bieber.
JAY-Z pulled his catalogue from Spotify back in April for the reason it lets users play anything they want on shuffle, which JAY believes de-values the music and it could also be the fact that he owns a competing service.