New Post: How Much Is R. Kelly’s Music Catalog Worth? - https://lnkd.in/gKRVpt5Z -
During the years of 2021 through 2023, R. Kelly’s music catalog averaged nearly 315,000 album consumption units each year in the U.S. — which, Billboard estimates, has generated about $2.3 million annually for the singer, adding together earnings from his master recording and publishing from those works.
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But assessing Kelly’s earnings isn’t that simple — this estimate doesn’t include royalties he derives from his outside work for other recording artists as a producer and songwriter, nor does it include royalties from cover versions of songs he recorded or that he wrote for other artists. Sources familiar with Kelly’s royalties say these additional income sources amount to several million more per year.
And there are other factors that play into how much Kelly himself earns from his works. In total, Billboard estimates that Kelly’s recorded master catalog generated an average of $4.1 million per year in revenue for the three years under consideration, while his publishing catalog — bolstered by Kelly being the sole writer on the majority of his songs — generated about $2.3 million per year in total for all stakeholders during the period.
Sources say that Kelly doesn’t own the master recordings he made during his period as a chart-topping artist, which accounts for the majority of the activity on his catalog. (His later period recordings, which Kelly may own, don’t fare as well in generating sales and streams.) So if he earns a blended royalty rate of 35% — a common rate for superstar artists — Billboard estimates he earned approximately $1.425 million per year from his master recordings. Even if Kelly doesn’t own his publishing from his most popular music, he doesn’t have many co-writers, so he lays claim to a large share of his publishing. Considering that songwriters later in their career tend to own their publishing or sign new contracts where they have a share in their publishing, Billboard estimates that Kelly’s royalties from his master recordings publishing comes out to about $865,000. When added to his estimated master recording royalties, that comes out to the $2.3 million figure.
A lawyer for Kelly disputed Billboard’s estimates, calling them “speculative,” and wouldn’t provide further information.
Beyond Billboard’s estimates, Kelly’s royalties include production fees for other artists in the Sony Music Entertainment system — for example, Aaliyah’s 1994 debut album Age Ain’t Nothing But a Num
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