On April 3rd, 2008, Jay Z announced a $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation that encompassed touring, recorded music and the creation of his new entertainment company Roc Nation. “I’ve turned into the Rolling Stones of hip-hop,” he told theNew York Times.
Jay Z may have been a bit premature in that proclamation, but thanks to what happened the following day—his marriage to Beyoncé—he has made a compelling case. Tonight the pair will wrap up the North American leg of their 19-date On The Run tour, which has topped $100 million in ticket sales. That means Jay Z and Beyoncé are earning at a higher rate than the Rolling Stones, who grossed $87.7 million on 18 dates in the first half of 2013.
“Everybody is winning,” said Live Nation’s Omar Al-Joulani in a recent interview with Billboard.
The tour’s success comes despite early rumors of slow ticket sales and a steady stream of tabloid reports that Jay Z and Beyoncé’s relationship is on the rocks. Financially, they’ve got plenty of reasons to stick together: if they were to play 100 more shows at their current rate, On the Run would be the second-most lucrative tour of all-time, trailing only U2’s epic 360 tour.
These sorts of numbers are only possible because of their incredible synergy as performers and business people. On his solo Magna Carter tour, Jay Z’s nightly grosses typically fell in the $750,000 to $1.2 million range; Beyoncé’s Mrs. Carter tour generally brought in $1-2 million per show.
Together, though, they’re grossing about $5 million a night. Whether it’s the chance to see the two stars on a tour unlike any they’ve undertaken or the voyeuristic interest in seeing the couple onstage together, audiences have been streaming into stadiums around the country at rates much greater than they would to see both acts individually.
“It’s a case of one plus one equals ten,” said media buyer Ryan Schinman in an interview for my Jay Z biography Empire State of Mind, which includes a chapter on the business ramifications of his marriage.
The reality is closer to one plus one-and-a-half equals five, but the math is extremely favorable for the couple either way. Beyoncé claimed the top spot on this year’s FORBES Celebrity 100 list, earning $115 million on the year, the best financial performance of her career; Jay Z ranked sixth with $60 million, his best showing since 2010.
Sharing reported nightly guarantees of $4 million, Jay Z and Beyoncé are nearly half way to last year’s combined earnings total of $175 million—with about ten months to go in our June-to-June scoring period.
Of course, Jay Z wasn’t the only prognosticator of such good fortunes. In Beyoncé’s 2006 song “Upgrade U,” she told her future husband, “I’ma help you build your account.”
Regardless of what happens to their relationship, she has certainly stayed true to that promise.
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