Frank Ocean has been winning since fulfilling his contractual obligations to Def Jam after the release of Endless and before the release of Blonde.
Blonde has won critical acclaim and topped the charts -- in its first week, the album was pirated a reported 750,000 times and sold 278,000 copies -- and it has made Ocean an even richer man.
Forbes estimates that Ocean earned $1 million in the week following the release of Blonde. Whereas most artists who are signed to a major label earn between $1.50 and $2 per album sale, Ocean stands to make between $5 to $7.50 per album. By leaving Def Jam, Ocean was forced to pay estimated $500,000 it took to make Blonde out of his own pocket. Apple covered marketing expenses and will earn a quarter of the album's list price ($9.99). The math works out to a personal gross of approximately $1 million.
Read HNHH's review of Blonde here.
[via Forbes]