Russ has proved once again that independence in music pays well, taking to social media to show off his latest six-figure payday — which he obtained in just one week.
On Friday (October 13), the Atlanta-via-New Jersey artist took to Twitter to educate his fans on how he earns bank from his masters due to him being an independent artist.
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In one screenshot, his current music royalties sit at $152,629.40, while in another, his catalog garnered $79,637.81.
“For inspirational purposes,” Russ began. “This is the money I made this week off just the masters of my independent catalogue. It fluctuates weekly obviously but this is just to give insight. You do not need to be on the radio or signed or have the biggest album in the word to fucking cake. You have to have a lot of good music and own it lol.”
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He continued: “I use 2 different distros. Vydia & TuneCore. My deal with them is the same. I keep 100% and pay onetime fee annually for unlimited uploads. I just wish artists knew the value of having a catalogue instead of feeling like they gotta make all the money they ever dreamed of off of one song.”
Check out Russ’ impressive payday below:
For inspirational purposes. This is the money I made this week off just the masters of my independent catalogue. It fluctuates weekly obviously but this is just to give insight. You do not need to be on the radio or signed or have the biggest album in the word to fucking cake.… pic.twitter.com/2PPewLNoNs
— SANTIAGO (@russdiemon) October 13, 2023
Russ has never been shy about giving fans a sneak peek into both his earnings and value as an artist, and his continued streaming success over the course of his career.
In July, he sat down with Spotify and opened up about his monthly listeners count while shouting out his “super listeners” who make up almost 10 percent of his fan base — a much higher portion compared to most other artists.
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“Sat down with Spotify and got to finally debunk wtf monthly listeners actually means,” he wrote on Twitter at the time. “Shoutout to all my ‘super listeners’. Super listeners on average make up 2% of an artists monthly listeners. Y’all make up 9% of mine.”
He continued in a separate tweet, saying that while 14 million monthly listeners are listed on his Spotify, only 10 million people are active listeners of his music. The other four million are just passive listeners who stumbled upon his tunes in playlists or on Spotify radio.
“I have 10,000,000 people in my active audience out of my 14m monthly listeners,” he wrote. “That’s people who go out of their way to listen to my music The rest is people who heard it on a playlist or Spotify radio etc..they weren’t actively tryna hear it This is why I say the monthly listeners number is a facade. I wonder what the active audience number really is for other artists who have crazy playlisting etc.”
Back in 2022, Russ also rapped about how he declined a $50million offer for his catalog on the Boi-1da-produced track, “Too Much.”
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“$50 million for the catalog, I turnt down (Facts)/ I’m makin’ money every second, you should learn how,” he spits on the track.
