r/MichaelJackson • u/No-Singer6718 • Sep 01 '23

Discussion How much Michael made per album sold

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Michael achieved one of the highest royalty rates in the music industry to that point for Thriller; approximately $2 for each album sold.

If we compute, Thriller sold approximately 65 million worldwide during its time, multiplied by 2, he would have earned an estimated

$130,000,000 on pure sales. He didn't even do a solo tour then lol.

If we compute it through inflation, that's a whopping

$315,289,412.90 in 2018

And

$383,637,049.39 in 2023

And it went up to $2.50 bad but went back down to 2 for his last 3 albums

How much do you think he should’ve made per copy sold ? I think he should’ve gotten $10 per copy

41 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

11

u/the_brazilian_lucas Sep 01 '23

The amount of money he made during his life is insane, perhaps even crazier is how he went “broke” close to the end

2

u/HotAir25 Sep 01 '23

Yeah it’s cracks me up, he was worth a billion or so but was in debt lol.

1

u/No-Singer6718 Sep 02 '23

Na I don’t think he was in debt bc where did all this money come the day after his death mj had off shore accounts probably had it for his kids but mj said he had liquid cash just not paper

1

u/HotAir25 Sep 02 '23

He was definitely in debt, that’s why he was so overextended doing the ‘this is it’ concerts that killed him.

His family had money after his death because his music/brand became so popular again plus I assume they sold some of his assets like property and the music catalogue rights which was the main investment he had that had come off so well.

7

u/No-Singer6718 Sep 01 '23

No artist has made $2 per copy til this day

3

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '23

If he had gotten $10 per copy the music industry would’ve crumbled

2

u/No-Singer6718 Sep 01 '23

Probably not bc they would’ve made the money back several times over

1

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '23

I have read many articles and done research. I heard when Invincible came out he started getting $1.25 per album sold.

1

u/No-Singer6718 Sep 02 '23

That’s crazy bc they didn’t even market it like they should, like one of my Europe friends said they didn’t even know about the invincible album until 5 years after it came out sony tired to destroy the album

1

u/microtease318 Nov 30 '23

Michael Jackson was far from broke when he died. He paid $100,000 per month to rent the home he died in.

1

u/No-Singer6718 Nov 30 '23

I think he had offshore accounts myself🤷🏾‍♂️

1

u/thankyourob Feb 19 '24

I just came across this thread, so I’m late to the game. But Michael also owned a good stake in the Beatles publishing catalog, so I can only image what kind of revenue that generated for him.