Which Artists Earn The Most Per Word?

On The Table Read Magazine, “the best entertainment magazine in the UK“, to work out which artist earns the most per word, experts at AmericanCasinoGuide analysed the streaming revenues of the most popular artists from 2022 to 2023. 

With reports showing that 10% of streaming royalties are stolen when music is re-uploaded by users, which amounts to approximately £2 billion in misallocated revenue, we’ve been wondering how much our favourite artists actually earn from their music.

To help us out, experts at AmericanCasinoGuide discovered how much the most popular artists ear the most per word in their songs by analysing  the 10 most streamed songs on Spotify for each artist from 2022-2023, and dividing the revenue for their songs by the total number of words in each song. They also worked out which artist has the highest number of unique words in their songs, and therefore, the most diverse vocabulary.

Which Artists Earn The Most Per Word?

Rank	Artist	Average monthly listeners (Spotify)	Average earnings per word (GBP £)
1.	Adele	53,853,615	23,082
2.	Coldplay	66,897,848	17,802
3.	Billie Eilish	54,580,143	14,172
4.	Post Malone	59,471,806	13,078
5.	The Weeknd	108,241,645	12,870
6.	Harry Styles	64,974,576	12,740
7.	Imagine Dragons	61,522,692	12,196
8.	Ed Sheeran	86,999,119	12,127
9.	Sam Smith	58,303,645	12,087
10.	Justin Bieber	73,246,807	11,696

Adele

AmericanCasinoGuide found that Adele earns the most at approximately £23,082 per word on average. Despite Billie Eilish (the only other woman in the ranking) having a similar number of average monthly listeners on Spotify, with just 726,528 difference, Adele earns an estimated 62% more per word. Adele is the highest earning per word against the other British artists on the list, earning almost double the amount per word than Ed Sheeran (£12,127).

Coldplay

Coldplay come in second place, earning an average of £17,802 per word from their discography. While they have almost a quarter (24%) more monthly listeners (66,897,848) than Adele (53,853,615), Coldplay’s earnings per word are estimated at a third less (29%). Despite Ed Sheeran having over 20 million more monthly listeners on average (86,999,119), Coldplay are predicted to earn as much as 46% more per word.

Billie Eilish

In third place is Billie Eilish, considered “the voice of Gen Z”, earning an estimated £14,172 per word throughout her body of work. Justin Bieber has almost 19 million more monthly listeners (73,246,807) than Eilish, and is similarly adored by Gen Z’ers, but Eilish is estimated to earn 21% more per word than Bieber.

Post Malone

Post Malone ranks fourth, earning approximately £13,078 per word, despite having 82% fewer (59,471,806) monthly listeners on Spotify than The Weeknd (108,241,645). In 2018, Post Malone released the song “Sunflower”, which has been streamed over 2.6 billion times (2,664,568,535), after a collaboration with fellow rapper Swae Lee.

The Weeknd

AmericanCasinoGuide can reveal that The Weeknd has the highest volume of monthly listeners of all artists analysed (108,241,645), more than double that of Adele (53,853,615) despite placing fifth in terms of earnings per word. The Weeknd is estimated to earn £12,870 per word throughout his discography, a staggering 79% less than Adele.

The Artists With The Most Diverse Vocabulary

Rank	Artist	Average monthly listeners	Song with the most unique words	Average unique words per song
1.	Eminem	66,741,744	Godzilla	357.2
2.	Lil Durk	23,835,409	Who Want Smoke??	272.8
3.	21 Savage	57,546,534	a lot	265.2
4.	Kendrick Lamar	46,256,400	Family Ties	263.6
5.	Jack Harlow	32,146,221	Churchill Downs	257.3
6.	BTS	37,054,081	Yet To Come	249.1
7.	Cardi B	30,077,313	Tomorrow 2	235.5
8.	YoungBoy NBA	18,816,911	To The Bone	235.2
9.	Lil Baby	31,467,048	Wants and Needs	233.1
10.	Drake	70,856,857	Fair Trade	221.8

Eminem

With the most varied vocabulary, Eminem uses a whopping 357 unique words per song on average. His 2020 song, Godzilla, has the highest number, with 460 unique words out of a total song word count of 959 — meaning almost half (47%) of the song is comprised of unique vocabulary.

Lil Durk

American rapper Lil Durk, who has 272 unique words on average throughout his discography, with Who Want Smoke?? being the most diverse track, with unique words accounting for 41% of the lyrics (395/951).

21 Savage

21 Savage comes in third, with 235 unique words on average throughout his body of work. His single, A Lot, contains the highest number of diverse words, with 384 out of a total song word count of 1,378 — accounting for almost 30% of the song’s lyrics. 

 

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