Kanye West Has Already Made Millions Off Of ‘Donda’ Before Its Release

Kanye West Has Already Made Millions Off Of ‘Donda’ Before Its Release

While Kanye West has yet to release his 10th studio album Donda, listening events surrounding the project are making him an even richer man.

On July 22nd, Kanye West packed Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium with 42,000 fans for his first listening event for Donda.  Each fan paid between $25 to $100 a ticket.  It was also live-streamed on Apple Music and made a new record with 3.3 million viewers.  The anticipation was that Kanye West‘s album was dropping the next day – but it did not.

Two weeks later, Kanye hosted a second listening party, giving fans a chance to hear an updated version of the highly-discussed album.  He broke his own previous Apple Music live stream record with 5.4 million viewers and brought in roughly $7 million from in-person merchandise sales, according to reports.

On top of that, the listening events in Atlanta reportedly brought in between $1.5 million and $2.7 million apiece.  In the 22 days, between July 19th and Aug. 9th, on-demand U.S. streams of his music increased by 37 percent from the previous 22 days.  This reportedly helped Kanye make an additional $350,000 in income.

West currently has a deal with Apple Music that will allow the company to stream the listening parties again once Donda is released.

Kanye is planning to host a third listening event tomorrow (Aug. 26) at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

His manager, Abou “Bu” Thiam said Donda will “100%” drop after the event.

What are your thoughts on Kanye West profiting from Donda before it’s released? Comment and let us know.

[VIA]