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Weird Al Yankovic Calls Out Spotify After 80 Million Streams Was Worth Squat

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Weird Al Yankovic famous face

Getty Image / Michael Tullberg


While everyone was busy posting their annual Spotify Wrapped results, Weird Al Yankovic was calling out the streaming giant for their meager pay after he pulled in 80 million streams this year.

In a video posted to Weird Al Yankovic’s Instagram Stories, he claims to have been responsible for 80 million streams in the past year. He then goes on to say that they paid him just $12, or as he says it, “enough to get myself a nice sandwich at a restaurant.” I hate to nitpick but can you really get a ‘nice sandwich’ for $12 these days with how expensive decent restaurants have become?

Here’s the video of Weird Al calling out Spotify:

The full quote form Weird Al Yankovic is “It’s my understanding that I had over 80 million streams on Spotify this year. So, if I’m doing the math right that means I earned … $12. So, enough to get myself a nice sandwich at a restaurant. So, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for your support and thanks for the sandwich.”

The video, presumably, was for someone who was one of Weird Al’s top listeners. Artists filmed personalized videos for their top listeners this year. If that is the case, it would seem that Spotify approved his jokes about how they paid him pennies. Theoretically, 1 million streams on Spotify is actually worth around $4,000. So his check from them would’e been around $80K for the year, if true.

The timing of Weird Al’s video is interesting. Madison Bloom at Pitchfork notes that just a week ago Spotify announced they’ll be eliminating payouts on songs that receive less than 1,000 annual streams. So they’re finding a way to cut out their existing micropayments, it seems.

It’s also a time when everyone is sharing their Spotify Wrapped results. ‘Spotify Wrapped’ was trending on Twitter most of the day on Wednesday and seemingly every Spotify user has already shared their results to Instagram Stories. Sadly, with all of the focus on Spotify Wrapped, Weird Al Yankovic’s video putting Spotify on blast sort of slipped under the radar.