Here are the biggest record deals signed in history!
12 - REM - $80 million In 1996, REM signed an $80-million dollar
deal with Warner Brothers.
That was THE biggest music deal at the time.
Specifics of the deal included a signing bonus of $10 million, $20 million upfront payment,
a further advance amount of $10 million for each of their subsequent albums, and 24% in
royalties.
REM was able to strike such a juicy deal wasn't a surprise considering their top-level status
in the rock space at that time.
REM was formed in 1980 by a group of four University of Georgia students.
They weren’t really aiming for stardom, at least according to Michael Stipe!
But soon after, they left school to concentrate on making music.
Their mainstream success didn't happen overnight though.
After seven years of being mostly underground, they gained a wider audience with the release
of "The One I Love" which subsequently landed them a deal with Warner Bros.
Under the deal, REM released some of their best albums including Out of Time in 1991
and Automatic for the People in 1992.
The success of these two albums saw the group receive several more deals at the end of their
initial contract with Warner Bros. 11 - Janet Jackson - $80 million
Janet Jackson has been in the limelight for pretty much her entire life.
Her first regular appearance was with her brothers and sisters on The Jacksons show
that aired in the 70s on CBS.
It wasn't until 1982 when she officially joined the music world.
That year, she signed a contract with A&M Records, arranged by her father who was then
Janet's manager.
Under the deal, Jackson released two albums – Janet Jackson and Dream Street, both of
which performed quite well on the charts.
But her ultimate claim to stardom came when she left her father's management and released
her third album in 1986.
The album was called Control, and it immediately claimed the number one spot on the Billboard
charts and sold over ten million copies worldwide!
That marked her meteoric rise with the expiration of her recording contract in 1991.
The following year, she inked a record-breaking deal with Virgin Records worth an estimated
$80 million.
That made her THE highest-paid recording artist – above Madonna and her own brother Michael!
According to the deal, Janet received a $35 million dollar signing advance, 24% in royalties,
and $5 million bucks up front for each album.
10 - Prince - $100 million With over 130 million record sales worldwide,
Prince was no doubt one of the best artists in history.
Sales aside, he was also known for the prolific amount of music he made over his career.
At the time of his death in 2016, he had released around 39 albums give or take!
He also had unreleased projects at his home stored away in a vault!
This work ethic was probably the reason why Warner Bros was willing to extend an earlier
contract at the hefty sum of $100 million in 1992.
The amount came as a huge surprise since it was way more than the biggest pop icons at
that time.
Prince was slated to receive a $10 million dollar advance per album, and he would get
between 20-25% in royalties.
While the royalty was unconditional, the advance wasn't.
For him to keep the $10 million dollars advance, he had to sell over 5 million albums to keep
it!
And, Prince didn’t get any guaranteed money in this deal.
9 - Whitney Houston $100 million Whitney Houston holds the Guinness World Record
for the most number of awards won for a female artist ever, with around 600 awards.
The record was awarded in 2006 and it was just icing on her already accomplished music
and acting career.
As a singer and songwriter, she already had major milestones including millions of album
sales worldwide, and had several of her tracks on the Billboard Hot 100.
Back in the late 90s, she was already the best-selling artist of her label Arista.
At that point in 2001, she had sold more than 140 million records worldwide since 1983!
So it was only natural that they'll try to retain her.
Arista reached a $100 million dollar deal with Whitney.
The full details of the deal weren’t made public, but we do know that she had to deliver
6 albums, and she also got royalties per sale.
8 - Madonna - $120 million Madonna holds the highest sales for tour tickets
with a record of $1.4 billion dollars.
This makes her the highest-grossing solo touring artist ever.
She also has sold over THREE hundred million albums!
Do we need to say she's among the best-selling artists of all time?
So it's pretty easy to see that she's been landing big deals since the 1990s.
Her first major deal was in 1996 when she got a $60 million dollar contract with Time
Warner and an additional 20% in royalties.
Her second big deal was in 2007 with Live Nation worth $120 million.
In the 10-year deal, Madonna got a $17.5 million advance and another $50 million in cash and
stock.
7 - Robbie Williams - $125 million Robbie Williams’ 2001 80 million pound deal
with EMI is the 2nd biggest record deal ever in history for a British artist.
That basically translated to 125 million back then.
Robbie Williams launched his solo career in 1996, and it was a bit unlikely he was going
to land the biggest UK deal ever at that time.
His first single titled Before I Die didn't perform well in other countries but managed
a second position in UK charts.
It took his fourth single Angels to gain a foothold in the larger European music scene.
More success followed with his second album, I've Been Expecting You in 1998 with over
3 million copies sold in the UK alone.
A few years later, he landed the 80 million pound deal giving EMI rights over subsequent
recordings, tours, publications, and merchandise.The deal included a £10 million pound advance,
£15 million pounds for the first album, and £55 million pounds for the remaining 3 albums.
6 - Adele - $130 million Adele has been breaking and setting records
ever since she released her debut album in 2008.
That album achieved multiple platinum sales both in the UK and US, propelling her to top
music status early on in her career.
Her second album further built on her established legacy with record sales and won her music
awards all over.
That album called 21 scooped six Grammy Awards – making Adele the only other artist apart
from Beyonce to achieve such a feat.
The album also has a cumulative sales record of 31 million copies worldwide, the highest
count so far this century for a single album!
She took a four-year break and in 2015, she came back with yet another successful album
going by the name 25.
But in the same year, her deal with XL Records had come to an end.
This means she was free for a new signing.
So Sony Music grabbed the opportunity to offer her a $130 million dollar deal, setting a
new milestone in Adele's decorated music career.
This deal meant that Adele had broken the record for the most expensive deal ever signed
by a female artist, beating both Madonna and Whitney Houston!
5 - Bruce Springsteen - $150 million Bruce got some recognition earlier on in his
career in the 70s with the release of his debut album, Born to Run.
But his ultimate win came several years later with the release of Born in the U.S.A.
The album is Springsteen's most successful with at least 30 million copies sold worldwide.
It’s easily one of the best-selling albums of all time.
He followed it up with a few others such as Tunnel of Love, Human Touch, and Lucky Town
among others.
Beyond the albums and tours, probably his career highlight was in 2005 when he signed
a whopping $150 million dollar deal with Columbia Records.
There’s not much on the exact details.
But we can guess the label probably still got a good deal as Springsteen is still pulling
in impressive numbers!
4 - Jay Z - $150 million Jay Z was another big artist to get a lucrative
deal from Live Nation.
This mega deal came just a year after Madonna inked her deal!
Jay-Z's deal covered 3 albums over 10 years and he was getting a $10 million dollar advance
payout for each one.
Other contract terms included $25 million upfront payment, $20 million for publishing
and licensing rights, and $25 million overhead for five years.
Back in 1995, no major record labels would give Jay Z a deal so he sold his early music
out of his car.
That same year, he went on to launch Roc-A-Fella label together with Damon Dash and Kareem
Burke.
Amazingly, in 2017, Jay signed a 200 million dollar touring deal over 10 years with Live
Nation as well!
3 - Lil Wayne - $150 million Lil Wayne had a successful long-term career
with Cash Money Records, his very first record label.
Aside from his own success, he's also credited with bringing Drake and Nicki Minaj into the
label.
That's something that definitely paid off big time for Cash Money's founder, Birdman.
So it's only natural that Birdman wasn't willing to let Lil Wayne go just yet.
In 2012, the Cash Money Record founder announced that Lil Wayne had signed what he called the
biggest deal ever in rap music.
The deal was worth an estimated $150 million and covered four more albums with the record
label.
Birdman acknowledged Lil Wayne's immense contribution in making Cash Money a big name in the music
industry.
He told MTV awards that there wasn't much of the label without Wayne's input.
But to make a really long story really short, Cash Money and Lil Wayne had big disputes.
Cash Money wouldn’t let Lil Wayne release numerous projects, such as The Carter 5.
They eventually completely called it quits in 2018.
Who knows how much money Lil Wayne actually saw from that deal!
2 - U2 - $200 million Since their debut in the 70s, U2 has released
14 studio albums and sold around 170 million records around the world.
That makes them one of the best-selling artists ever.
They've also won a record 22 Grammy Awards, more than any band in history!
The 90s was U2's biggest decade.
Their 1991 album Achtung Baby was one of their biggest albums, both in terms of earnings
and the influence it had in the music world.
The album's success was followed up by the Zoo TV Tour from 1992 to 1993.
And just like Achtung Baby, the tour pulled in some impressive numbers.
It was the highest-grossing North American tour at that time.
In 1993, U2 signed a 10-year deal with their then record label Island Records.
For a whopping $200 million dollars, the record label acquired rights to both the band's next
six albums and their entire catalog!
That huge dollar sum made U2 one of the most paid rock bands even to this day.
1 - Michael Jackson - $250 million Does it surprise anyone that Michael is number
1?
He’s sold over an estimated 350 million records worldwide!
His sixth studio album that he released in 1982, Thriller, remains the best-selling album
ever!
It’s been sold over 66 million times!
What else could an artist ask for?
For Michael, that means big checks even if he isn’t around.
In 2010, Sony Music Entertainment entered into a deal with the singer's estate – the
biggest record deal ever.
For $250 million dollars, Sony got the rights for 7 years to make money off of Michael’s
entire music catalog!
Here’s what’s next!