There's plenty of gems in FADER's latest cover story on Atlanta rap phenomenons Migos—heated paintball excursions, mall shopping sprees, plans for global domination—but one of the main narratives running through writer Leon Neyfakh's profile is the ways the trio, independent label Quality Control Music, and former Warner Music Group CEO Lyor Cohen's 300 Entertainment label are working to secure Migos' future longevity, both artistically and financially. Speaking to that latter element, we've put together a brief rundown on the ways that Migos are getting paid in 2014, a complement to the story that highlights how Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff make those racks stack up.
1. Performances
Following the success of "Fight Night" and "Handsome and Wealthy", from this year's free mixtape No Label 2, Migos have clocked between two and four performances a week, taking in $40,000 a show. (According to Neyfakh's story, 300 Entertainment doesn't take a cut from performance revenues either, making Migos' pot that much sweeter.)
2. Streaming Revenue
The group averages two million streams per day; excluding their just-released Rich Nigga Timeline mixtape, much of Migos' discography is currently streaming on Spotify, where rights holders typically collect between $.006 and $.0084 (Rdio's rates were similar, while Beats pays competitively), so Migos ostensibly stands to take in between $12,000 and $16,800 per day from streams alone.
3. Record Sales
Migos are tentatively scheduled to release their proper debut LP next year through 300 Entertainment; as mentioned in the cover story, their deal with the label entails that the label will collect 30% of royalties while Migos and Quality Control retain the remaining 70%.
4. Merchandise
The Quality Control merchandise site moves about 100 pieces of Migos merch per week; taking into account the least expensive item on the site (Women's Trap X Black & White T-shirt, $27.99), Migos and Quality Control potentially pull almost $2800/week in merch sales.
5. Syncs
A 300 rep confirms that potential syncs for "Fight Night" are in the works (the label's declined to comment on the financial specifics).
6. Livemixtapes
It's been no secret for a while now that mixtape-hosting websites typically will pony up some dough to exclusively host mixtapes and other content from hot-property acts like Migos; if the trio did indeed strike up such a deal with Livemixtapes, who are exclusively hosting Rich Nigga Timeline, the 588,000+ views the mixtape's received in the last two days could prove beneficial for both parties. (300's rep declined to comment on the specifics of the deal.)
Photo credit: Ben Grieme/FADER
