But the song was used on TV movies and commercials so I wonder how much he made from its use overall
Pharrell Made Only $2,700 In Songwriter Royalties From 43 Million Plays Of 'Happy' On Pandora
- Thread starter GAMETHEORY
- Start date
I would guess that he made a grip. That song charted in so many countries.
Pharrell Williams' Happy goes triple platinum with 1.8m sales
Hit track which featured on Despicable Me 2 soundtrack becomes fourth single to reach triple platinum status in 20 years
Press Association
Thursday 24 July 2014 10.04 EDT First published on Thursday 24 July 201410.04 EDT
Pharrell Williams has pulled off rare sales feat of notching up 1.8m singles sales
Pharrell Williams' hit Happy has brought further joy to his music bosses by pulling off a rare sales feat.
The track has become only the fourth single to be declared triple platinum in 20 years, meaning it has achieved 1.8m sales.
Happy, which featured on the soundtrack to the movie Despicable Me 2, topped the singles chart in December and has not left the top 20 this year.
Music industry body the BPI incorporated data for online streaming into its sales awards earlier this month – at the same time the figures were incorporated into the singles chart – with 100 plays on legitimate services judged to be the equivalent of one sale.
Happy has notched up more than 25m streams, the equivalent of 250,000 sales – which took it past the 1.8m barrier.
Gennaro Castaldo, of the BPI, said: "Every now and then a song comes along that captures the public mood and becomes a feelgood anthem for a generation.
"Happy is not only one of the most successful multiplatinum recordings of all time, it has taken on near-iconic status and has helped to propel Pharrell to global superstardom."
For singles to go platinum they have to have notched up 600,000 sales, while for gold the figure is 400,000 and for silver it is 200,000.
The only other singles to sell 1.8m were Will Young's Anything Is Possible/ Evergreen, Aqua's Barbie Girl and the biggest-selling UK single of all times, Sir Elton John's Candle In The Wind 1997/ Something About The Way You Look Tonight.
Colin Barlow, the managing director of Pharrell's music label RCA, said: "Pharrell is one of the most innovative producers, writers and performers to emerge from the world of music in the last 20 years."
I feel you dog. Back in the days you had TR making remix 12 inch singles and I couldn't wait for Sound Warehouse to get 12 inches on Fridays. You had options, instrumentals and I wanted to buy music. I'm not making excuses at all. I buy music and support artist I like. One day when movies are the same Ill buss bec Im not a movie goer. I miss Teddy Riley's 12 inch singles
synchronization and licensing, thats different royalties -
Pharell should see these income streams from sales and playing of Happy:
mechanical, performance as performer, performance as writer / producer and then synchronization/ licensing deals
this article only touched on performance/publishing as writer & producer
Wow.
Exactly why things need to change
How dare they treat a "new black" in such a despicable manner? They're treating you like an old black, Pharrell!
Dont u mean an inheritance tax?
Record labels had no say in the matter. Because Pandora listeners can only create "stations" around specific artists or music genres, which they personally select, they can't technically access specific songs or albums. That means Pandora is categorized as any other radio station would be. In addition, it goes in accordance with the U.S. law which states that it can play any song by any artist from any label, as long as it pays the legally mandated copyright royalties.
Pandora is licensed through government statute in the U.S. and as a result, record companies cannot withhold from webmaster radio services.
Pandora is licensed through government statute in the U.S. and as a result, record companies cannot withhold from webmaster radio services.
copyright holders can and have in the past denied or yanked music from radio stations
#newblackproblems
^^ This.
Pandora pays $0.17 cents per streamed song in royalties.
But Pandora doesn't actually pay artists (directly).
It pays SoundExchange, which then gives artists 45% of net royalties.
Half of net royalties goes to labels, and a portion may find its way back to artists through its royalty accounting system.
EDIT: How SoundExchange distributes net royalties:....
- 50% to the owner of the sound recording...
- 45% to the performing artist and...
- 5% to the session musicians and backup singers.
- Net royalties are royalties less SoundExchange's administration fee, which is 5.3%
The track was released back in 2013, through Back Lot Music >> via Columbia Records >> a subdivision of Sony.
Safe to say all those entities are probably ALL 'getting a cut' of those streams.
(plus his 'Talent Agent' probably gets a cut too
)46 million streams x $0.17 cents = 7.82 million cents = $78,200 dollars
$2,700 is only 3.45% of $78,200
Wow, unbelievable.^^ SO True!!
Pharrell only made $2,700 from Pandora
... While Gucci would've made $78k. 
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No it's the death tax. Here's a link explaining it. https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/02/03/what-is-a-death-tax-and-will-you-have-to-pay-one.aspx
The Federal and the State want their cut first on money and assets you earned and were already taxed on when you were alive before you heirs get claim any of it. That's double taxation. Should be illegal but they make their own rules and force us to comply.
^^ This.
Pandora pays $0.17 cents per streamed song in royalties.
But Pandora doesn't actually pay artists (directly).
It pays SoundExchange, which then gives artists 45% of net royalties.
Half of net royalties goes to labels, and a portion may find its way back to artists through its royalty accounting system.
EDIT: How SoundExchange distributes net royalties:....
So Pharrell must have had ALOT of 'middle men' involved with this track.
- 50% to the owner of the sound recording...
- 45% to the performing artist and...
- 5% to the session musicians and backup singers.
- Net royalties are royalties less SoundExchange's administration fee, which is 5.3%
The track was released back in 2013, through Back Lot Music >> via Columbia Records >> a subdivision of Sony.
Safe to say all those entities are probably ALL 'getting a cut' of those streams.
(plus his 'Talent Agent' probably gets a cut too
46 million streams x $0.17 cents = 7.82 million cents = $78,200 dollars
$2,700 is only 3.45% of $78,200
^^ SO True!!
Pharrell only made $2,700 from Pandora
There are no album credits any more with the advent of MP3's so how can they pay the session musicians and backup singers their 5% royalty? Session musicians and backup singers are considered "work for hire" so I wonder how they find those people to pay them if they do at all. There are millions of session musicians and background singers getting jacked. They should start a class action lawsuit.
If Pharrell got $2,700, then everybody else got either similar or lower.
The average artist probably got $00.00000000076 cents.
Yet a white company is getting rich off this shit.
At what point do you just withdraw from the system and use a completely different model than the current one they're providing? How much proof do artists, particularly black artists need??
The average artist probably got $00.00000000076 cents.
Yet a white company is getting rich off this shit.
At what point do you just withdraw from the system and use a completely different model than the current one they're providing? How much proof do artists, particularly black artists need??
One issue is the majors negotiate their own deal with Tidal/Apple/Spotify/Pandora
Apple is trying to drive the others out of business not by paying the artist more, but by paying the labels more. Thus, Spotify is saying they're not profitable paying using Apple's contract of paying close to 60% of their revenue.
So the labels are still winning from streaming. They're just cutting the artist out.
Tidal gives the largest pay out to the artist for the stream.
Apple is trying to drive the others out of business not by paying the artist more, but by paying the labels more. Thus, Spotify is saying they're not profitable paying using Apple's contract of paying close to 60% of their revenue.
So the labels are still winning from streaming. They're just cutting the artist out.
Tidal gives the largest pay out to the artist for the stream.
http://royaltycalc.com/
I agree, direct your customers to the companies that are paying the most. And if you can designate an exclusive with your digital distributor.
