Gangnam Style, the most-watched YouTube video ever, with more than one billion views, has earned K-pop sensation Psy $8 million on YouTube Alone, said Nikesh Arora in a rare disclosure on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. A previous analysis by the Associated Press indicated that Psy had earned $7.9 million from Gangnam Style in worldwide revenue, including downloads on iTunes and streaming and sales on services available only in Korea.
Considering that Gangnam style has, as of this writing, racked up 1.23 billion views on YouTube, that means the video is generating on average 0.65 cents every time someone plays the video. The creator of a YouTube video keeps about half of that money, which suggests Psy and his record company have earned about $4 million from YouTube.
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