Oliver Anthony may have turned down an $8 Million deal, but the singer’s viral success has him raking in a pretty paycheck, according to the New York Post.
Oliver Anthony and radiowv captured lightning in a bottle when they recorded the singer performing his self-penned tune “Rich Men North Of Richmond.”
Upon the video’s release to YouTube, the Virginia-based independent artist skyrocketed to fame in a way never seen before. Within 48 hours, Oliver Anthony held five of the top 10 spots on the iTunes country chart. And just this week he became the first artist in history to debut atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart without any prior chart history.
In a post made to Facebook on August 17, Oliver, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, addressed all of the attention and offers he’s received since the video went viral. He also stated that it was never his desire to be a full-time musician playing stadium shows.
“People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers. I don’t want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression,” Anthony wrote. “These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung.”
Read Oliver Anthony’s full Facebook statement HERE.
Oliver Anthony’s choice to turn down multimillion-dollar offers appears to be paying off.
According to a new report from the New York Post, Oliver Anthony is earning $40K a day through royalties from streaming services and downloads alone.
“Rich Men North of Richmond” sold 147,000 downloads in its first week on iTunes, which earns the singer up to 70 cents a download. That equals an astonishing $102,000 payday for Oliver in just one week.
It’s unknown how much the singer is earning from streaming services like Spotify and other streaming services, making it tough to determine how much Oliver Anthony is making from streams alone. But, Ross Michaels, the co-president and founder of Park Avenue Artists, estimates that Anthony’s music would need to garner 10 million streams a day for him to bring in $40K.
“The general rule of thumb is that every million streams is about $5,000 if you own all the rights,” said Michaels. He added that the artist typically gets 70% of that amount.
NYPost does say that it’s possible for Oliver to earn a jaw-dropping $40K a day if you are to count money brought in through Bandcamp and Patreon, both sites where Oliver Anthony has profiles and sells track downloads and streams.
Billboard shared Tuesday (August 22) that they estimate Anthony has garnered roughly $350,000 in royalties thus far.
See the blue-collar anthem that made Oliver Anthony a viral star below.