Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth‘s video for “See You Again,” has become the first hip hop video to score over one billion views on YouTube. The clip—which made its debut back in April—is a tribute to actor Paul Walker, who passed away in a single vehicle accident in 2013
Wiz Khalifa's 'See You Again' Video Hits One Billion Views
The only other artist to achieve such was Korean pop artist PSY whose 2014 hit "GANGHAM STYLE" according to FORBES made PSY a very rich man.
While it may not be enjoying the radio and sales attention it once did, the song is still earning Psy (and his record label YG Entertainment) quite a bit of money, and it’s all from that most viral of videos.
While there is quite a bit of debate about how much the singer really has earned, the New York Times quoted a video ad buying platform named TubeMogul in reaching a figure. Breaking down their figures, it can be surmised that Psy has earned just under $2 million from YouTube ads, almost all of which come from the “Gangnam Style” clip.
While it may seem like how much money a person has made from a certain product would be fairly straightforward, in this case it is actually tricky to figure out. While YouTube has partner programs with many content creators, the deals they have made with all of them are secret, and can vary widely.
What is known is that YouTube keeps half of earned ad revenue,with the remainder going to whomever owns the content.
Interestingly, Psy is making money every day not just from his own video(s), but those of other users from around the world. YouTube has a system for detecting when copyrighted material is being used in a video, and should it be found, the content’s owner has the choice of either taking that video down or getting a share of the advertising revenue.
Often record labels will quickly remove copies of new singles, so as to centralize views to the one they have uploaded. Psy chose for others to be able to use his track, and is raking in money from the 40,000 or so parody videos, lyric videos and the like that all use “Gangnam Style”, though calculating how much is a daunting task.
It should be made clear that $2 million figure mentioned above is from YouTube advertising alone. When all other revenue streams are taken into account—sales of the track on iTunes, live shows, endorsements, etc.—Psy’s wealth swells to somewhere between $8 million and $10 million, with almost all of it being traceable back to the silly horsey dance.
