"Gangnam Style" is the most popular YouTube video of all-time. But its nearly 900 million views have made its artist, the K-pop sensation Psy, just $870,000, according to AV Club. That's nearly a penny per song.
But don't cry for Psy. His single still managed to make more than $8 million in international downloads, endorsements, and commercials. This is the graph that tells you how an international dance sensation makes $8 million:
The music industry is pretty great for fans of music and pretty rotten for artists. Music consumers have never had it better. But a hit song doesn't mean what it used to: One billion streams isn't even worth one million dollars.
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