Psy Video Gangnam Style Earns $8 Million On YouTube

I'm sure a lot of people out there have YouTube accounts, but a lot of people may not realize that if your channel generates enough page views YouTube will often allow you to monetize your videos. The video monetization typically has to do with placing a commercial in front of the video you want to watch that you have to view for at least a few seconds before you can skip it. If you listen to a radio station that plays any popular music, you've undoubtedly heard Psy belt out his barely understandable song Gangnam Style.

YouTube has let us in on exactly how much success Psy and his music video have had on the video platform. The video is the most watched ever to hit YouTube with more than 1 billion views. That 1 billion views has earned $8 million revenue on YouTube alone.

I suspect Psy will be a one-hit wonder, at least here in the US, but he certainly racked up some significant money from his tune. What's interesting about Google offering up this insight on money earned, aside from the fact that it is usually close lipped about how much videos make, is that previous estimates believed that Psy had only made $7.9 million globally from the song including downloads on iTunes, streaming, and sales.

It sounds as if the song has been much more successful than people believed. If you do a bit of math, QZ reports that each time the video is played it generates about $.65 in revenue. Since YouTube takes approximately 50% of the revenue generated by video, Psy (or at least his record company) have made about $4 million from the YouTube video alone.

[via QZ]