--- title: How Much Money Kanye West Will Lose By Streaming 'The Life of Pablo' on Tidal description: Despite proclaiming to be $53 million in debt, Kanye West launched his new album The Life of Pablo only on Tidal, losing a ton of money. authors: - name: Alicia Adamczyk url: https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 201 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk former_staff: true published: '2016-02-16T17:35:08.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T10:01:58.000Z' section: Lifestyle word_count: 706 canonical: https://money.com/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-pablo-money/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Kanye West pauses as he speaks while accepting the Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, California, August 30, 2015.](https://img.money.com/2016/02/160216_em_kanyedebt.jpg) Kanye West went on yet another bizarre Twitter spiral over the long weekend, claiming to be $53 million in debt and asking tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and [Larry Page](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/699108230371397632) for financial aid. Apparently, the rant was effective in certain circles--the "[hedge fund guys billionaires](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/699308521284718593)" came through, West tweeted. Yet it's unclear the degree to which he's in debt, if indeed he's in the red at all. TMZ reports $53 million is likely the amount [West has spent](http://www.tmz.com/2016/02/15/kanye-west-debt-53-million-investment/) out of his own pocket on his various projects, not money owed to a bank. What's more, it's a bit of a head-scratcher that the artist would complain about money and then make his new album *The Life of Pablo* available only on [Tidal](http://tidal.com/us), a music streaming service owned by pal Jay Z, and not on Apple Music or other services that would give West a guaranteed paycheck. ***Read next: [Why $100 Bills and €500 Notes May Soon Be Killed Off](https://money.com/kill-100-dollar-bill-500-euro-phase-out/)*** So how much is Kanye leaving on the table by working only with Tidal for the time being? Last year, Information is Beautiful, a data visualization site, estimated that an artist earns around [$2.30 per album download](http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online-2015-remix/) on Apple Music. So, for example, West and Jay Z's album *Watch the Throne* set a record when it was downloaded 290,000 times in its first week of availability, bringing in nearly $700,000 to the artists if you use the $2.30 figure. This time around, Kanye could have seen a much bigger paycheck when you take into account that he wouldn't be splitting the profits with a music partner, and that it's been two and a half year since his last album, and that his antics in the days leading up to the release (including the [Taylor Swift lyric](https://money.com/kanye-west-taylor-swift-work/) heard 'round the world) garnered him unquantifiable press and media attention. **Read Next: [How to Stream Kanye West’s ‘Life of Pablo’ for Free](https://money.com/how-to-stream-kanye-wests-life-of-pablo-for-free/)** In addition to the revenues missing because no one can officially download *The Life of Pablo* via Apple Music or other services, pirating of the album has been rampant. According to TorrentFreak, "an estimated [500,000 people](https://torrentfreak.com/kanye-wests-the-life-of-pablo-piracy-160216/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29)" have already pirated TLOP, and that number will only increase. (You can see how many pirated copies have already [been taken down here](https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11838280#).) What's more, [Tidal has been refunding customers](http://www.businessinsider.com/tidal-screws-up-release-kanye-west-new-album-2016-2) who pre-paid as much as $20 for a download of the album (West nixed downloads at the last second) that they will not receive. It's abundantly clear that if *TLOP* does ever actually go on sale, it won't sell nearly as well as it would have had it been available for normal purchase at launch. **Read Next: [How to Handle a Kanye West in the Workplace](https://money.com/kanye-west-taylor-swift-work/)** Among the other lines disseminated recently on social media by Kanye was one pointing out that [money doesn't make him who he is](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/699502974448640000). This is probably for the best, because in this instance he doesn't appear good at getting paid. The good news? Thanks to Ye's exclusive album release, Tidal shot to the #1 app download spot on the iTunes charts. This comes just after Rihanna's exclusive launch of her new album *Anti* netted Tidal over [one million sign-ups](http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/kanye-west-tlop-tidal-exclusive-1201706912/) in less than a day, according to Variety. And West is earning more money than most from the Tidal streams: Back when the music service re-launched, Jay told Billboard that West and 15 other artists each had "3 percent equity in the company." It's not Apple Music-level money, but if West can convert enough users to switch to Tidal from Apple Music/iTunes during a special [90-day free trial period](https://money.com/how-to-stream-kanye-wests-life-of-pablo-for-free/), he may reap the benefits eventually. But that's a big "if." Still, there's the case to be made that artists don't make much money off of album sales anymore anyway; rather, they count on touring, merchandise, endorsements, and other deals to boost their bottom line. For example, the *Yeezus* tour made over [$25 million](http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/5855032/mccartney-tops-hot-tours-with-40m-gross-from-japan-shows-kanye-lands-in) in 2013, and Kanye has his fashion lines, Adidas deals, restaurant company, and record label to make back some of the missed profits. Can you imagine if he announced a world tour? Perhaps he's taking some business lessons from fellow Tidal-exclusive artist Beyoncé and focusing on profit streams far beyond albums sales. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-pablo-money/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Music", "item": "https://money.com/music/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How Much Money Kanye West Will Lose By Streaming 'The Life of Pablo' on Tidal" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-pablo-money/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-pablo-money/", "name": "How Much Money Kanye West Will Lose By Streaming 'The Life of Pablo' on Tidal", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-02-16T17:35:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-pablo-money/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-pablo-money/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T10:01:58.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How Much Money Kanye West Will Lose By Streaming 'The Life of Pablo' on Tidal", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/02/160216_em_kanyedebt.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1441, "caption": "160216_EM_KanyeTIDAL" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alicia Adamczyk", "url": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2016/01/alicia-headshot-2.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "email": "alicia.adamczyk@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-02-16T17:35:08.000Z", "description": "Despite proclaiming to be $53 million in debt, Kanye West launched his new album The Life of Pablo only on Tidal, losing a ton of money.", "abstract": "Despite proclaiming to be $53 million in debt, Kanye West launched his new album The Life of Pablo only on Tidal, losing a ton of money.", "@id": "https://money.com/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-pablo-money/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T10:01:58.000Z", "wordCount": 706, "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Music", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music" ] } ] } ] } ```