Watching at this I ask myself if it would be worthy a charity dinner for, say, Taylor Swift or U2 or Coldplay, according to the above clip paradigm the poorest in the world.

 

Last edited: May 31, 2025

Spotify does pay terribly, but that can add up when your getting the amount of plays he was. Theres also sync licensing, radio, etc, and it all adds up. It really depends on what percentage of pub / master he held, but im guessing he made multi-millions a year from that side of things alone.

 

Streaming royalties alone wouldn’t have come close. Dance music pays very little per play and most of his early success came before streaming exploded. Touring was where DJs made real money, so playing shows covered his living costs long before the big hits arrived.