JAY-Z’s 4:44 debuted earlier this month, first as a Tidal and Sprint exclusive and then on Apple Music and Amazon Music a week later.
But the one place that JAY-Z will not be putting his music is Spotify, and a new report from Billboard says the decision could be costing him millions.
Billboard reported that JAY-Z had his reasons for staying away from Spotify, chief among them his belief that the streaming service was devaluing music because it gave “free users the ability to play any album or artist catalog on shuffle.”
However, according to the report, putting 4:44 on Spotify could net JAY-Z $1 million a week, based on “an analysis of likely payouts to other prominent artists” from their album debuts as well as “the service’s share of the market and the average rate paid per song stream.”
Another insider in the report put the number at closer to $250,000 per week, assuming that 4:44 is streamed as often as the current top track: Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” remix featuring Justin Bieber.
Either way, it looks like JAY-Z is missing out on a good chunk of change by not streaming with Spotify, but considering the fact that he’s worth $810 million, he can afford to make decisions like that.
