This week, The Weeknd witnessed the accomplishment of an unprecedented feat. His hit single, “Blinding Lights,” made history by becoming the first song on Spotify to surpass 4 billion streams. Just over a year ago, the song dethroned Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” as the most streamed song of all times.
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Four billion streams translate into a substantial revenue solely from this song. So, how much did The Weeknd earn from “Blinding Lights”? Variety magazine made calculations, revealing an income of about $20 million. This sum is further broken down into royalties, ranging between $15.5 million and $17.5 million, and the remaining $4.5 million in publishing. Notably, Spotify pays nearly $.004 per stream.
As consistently reported by Variety, this substantial sum doesn’t go entirely to The Weeknd, as there are four co-writers, including Max Martin, and two co-producers.
Released in 2019 as the second single from “After Hours,” The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” stands as one of the most successful singles in music history. Achieving RIAA Diamond certification for selling 10 million units in the US and topping over 50 charts worldwide, the song is at the pinnacle of the Billboard All-Time Hot 100. Impressively, it holds the record for the longest-charting song in Hot 100 history, with 90 weeks on the chart.
Despite the unprecedented success of both the song and the album, The Weeknd faced a surprising turn of events at the 2020 Grammy Awards, receiving zero nominations and causing shock among fans and critics. As of 2024, this Grammy snub remains one of the most notable in the award ceremony’s history.
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