Ke$ha, The Black Eyed Peas and Adele Top the Charts for Most Revenue Made via Digital Downloads in Over a Decade

News provided by

WhatTheArtistGot.com

07 Apr, 2014, 05:00 GMT

LONDON, April 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

New website WhatTheArtistGot.com has revealed the top 10 songs that made the most revenue via digital downloads from 2002-2013, Ke$ha's Tik Tok, Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling and Adele's Rolling in the Deep taking the top spots.

Compiled by the music platform Songeist, WhatTheArtistGot.com gives the public the chance to see exactly where and to whom their money goes when they purchase a digital download.

Tik Tok and I Gotta Feeling beat revenues from the likes of Adele and Lady Gaga; selling near 15million digital copies respectively, both track's estimated revenue is £11,900,000.

However, calculations based on the conventional record industry model indicate that Ke$ha and Black Eyed Peas could have earned less than a fifteenth of this figure in royalties (£796,000).

If they had employed the Songeist model, with a flat fee of only 12p per track downloaded, they would have taken home £6million - more than seven times what the royalties for their songs accrued.

Top 10 songs that made the most revenue via digital downloads from 2002-2013: 


    Artist                    Track                        Year   Genre

    Ke$ha                     Tik Tok                      2009   electro, pop
    The Black Eyed Peas       I Gotta Feeling              2009   dance, pop
    Adele                     Rolling in the Deep          2010   soul
    Lady Gaga                 Poker Face                   2008   electropop
    LMFAO featuring Lauren
      Bennett and GoonRock    Party Rock Anthem            2011   electro, house
    Maroon 5 featuring
      Christina Aguilera      Moves like Jagger            2011   pop
    Carly Rae Jepsen          Call Me Maybe                2011   pop
    Gotye featuring Kimbra    Somebody That I Used to Know 2011 alternative rock, indie pop
    Eminem featuring Rihanna  Love the Way You Lie         2010   hip hop
    Katy Perry                Firework                     2010   disco, rock

    (table continued)

    Artist                   Digital track  Ave cost  Revenue   Artist      Songeist model
                             sales          track               Got

    Ke$ha                    15,000,000      0.79     GBP11.9M  GBP796,000  GBP6,000,000
    The Black Eyed Peas      15,000,000      0.79     GBP11.9M  GBP796,000  GBP6,000,000
    Adele                    14,000,000      0.79     GBP11.1M  GBP743,000  GBP5,600,000
    Lady Gaga                14,000,000      0.79     GBP11.1M  GBP743,000  GBP5,600,000
    LMFAO featuring Lauren
      Bennett and GoonRock   14,000,000      0.79     GBP11.1M  GBP743,000  GBP5,600,000
    Maroon 5 featuring
      Christina Aguilera     13,900,000      0.79     GBP11.0M  GBP738,000  GBP5,600,000
    Carly Rae Jepsen         13,500,000      0.79     GBP10.7M  GBP717,000  GBP5,400,000
    Gotye featuring Kimbra   13,000,000      0.79     GBP10.3M  GBP690,000  GBP5,200,000
    Eminem featuring Rihanna 12,800,000      0.79     GBP10.1M  GBP680,000  GBP5,100,000
    Katy Perry               11,000,000      0.79      GBP8.7M  GBP584,000  GBP4,400,000

WhatTheArtistGot.com allows fans to search through some of the most popular downloaded tracks of all time and discover the average cost for artists doing business through a traditional major record label, versus what they could have earned if they sold the track DIY through a platform such as Songeist.

The microsite empowers fans to give more of the money they spend on downloads to the musicians they love.

Last year saw global digital revenues grow by 4.3% on the previous year, to $5.9 billion* highlighting the digital channel as a key revenue stream.

Mark Pattison, Marketing Manager at Songeist comments, "The music industry is changing. Songeist believes that more and more artists will see a DIY approach as a viable alternative to the major label system. WhatTheArtistGot.com represents the core ethos of our business and conveys it to music fans in a clear, informative and engaging way".

Songeist is a new platform dedicated to supporting emerging music from around the globe. The site allows you to discover, share and download the best up-and-coming artists before you've heard them anywhere else.

Notes to Editors: