It’s an age-old question that gets asked every year before the Super Bowl: How much are these artists getting paid to perform during the halftime show? The answer is zero...and Kendrick Lamar was no different. The NFL won’t pay him a dime for his buzzy performance from Sunday outside of the minimum union scale, which is about $1,000 per day for the performance itself and rehearsal days. But that doesn’t mean that Lamar won’t see any financial benefits on the back end — quite the opposite, in fact.
Like the companies paying for a Super Bowl commercial spot, performing at halftime is an opportunity for artists to advertise themselves to an audience they may never get again. And this year, Lamar broke the record for the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show ever, with 133.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
That massive viewership will be inclined to stream more of his music after the show. And that’s where the bucks come in.
Start with Lamar’s Grammy-winning diss track, which was the biggest earner in his Drake beef from last spring. According to a report from Forbes, that track generated $7.6 million in 2024 alone following its May release.
In the days that have followed his performance, Lamar has seen a 175% increase in streams. The songs he performed during the show have enjoyed big jumps, including “Not Like Us” (430%), “HUMBLE” (300%), “man at the garden” (260%) and “euphoria” (260%), according to Forbes. This resulted in Lamar breaking the all-time record for the most monthly listeners for a rapper in the history of Spotify.
On Apple Music, the streams for “Not Like Us” increased by 905%, and is once again the top song on the Global and US Daily Top 100. The streams for “luther” increased by 757% and streams for Lamar’s entire catalog increased by 328%.
In most cases, streaming services pay artists just a few hundredths of a penny per stream. But with “Not Like Us” racking up more than 11 million Spotify streams on the Monday after the Super Bowl, figure Lamar pocketed more than $30,000 from that one song, that one day, on that one streaming service alone.
Figure his entire catalogue was, and is, being streamed more often after the game. That’s seven albums (eight if you count “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers” as a double album), and you’re looking at more than 120 of his songs benefitting from the “Super Bowl Effect.” Even if, say, his other songs got a $20,000-per boost, you’re looking at more than $500,000 in just a day. Now pull that out to a full week — three hundredths of a penny times untold millions of streams — and that’s just on Spotify alone.
YouTube and Apple Music is also estimated to pay anywhere between three hundredths and one tenth of a penny per stream. We’re talking potential millions of dollars in a boost for Lamar from the Super Bowl.
Factor also the fact that much of Lamar’s setlist is from his latest album “GNX,” which just dropped late last November. It was a controversial move considering he didn’t perform several beloved hits in lieu of showcasing a newer body of work — rare for the Super Bowl stage where folks come to hear the hits.
But “GNX” is the first album Lamar dropped under pgLang, his label with producer Dave Free. The Super Bowl is perhaps the best possible venue to promote a new album released on an independent label — one in which he’ll make more money per stream than he would his hits, which were released under the Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath umbrella and would net Lamar less money per stream.
This is why it’s a no-brainer for Lamar and other artists to perform at the Super Bowl: The money they make on the back end will more than make up for the huge upfront check they forego to hit the world’s biggest stage.