Pharrell Earned Only $2,700 in Songwriter & Publisher Royalties from Plays of "Happy" on Pandora

2014 may have been another great year for Pharrell, but the 41-year-old hitmaker still didn’t manage to make that much money from songwriter and publisher royalty checks from Pandora. Despite it landing 43 million streams on Pandora in the first quarter of this year, his airwave-dominating single “Happy” only earned Pharrell about $2,700 in songwriting and publishing royalties from the digital streaming giant. However, according to Fusion’s Rob Wile, “these numbers aren’t all inclusive and don’t include performance rights royalty rates,” so chances are good that Pharrell did earn a little more from plays of “Happy” on Pandora. Wile quotes figures from “industry analyst Michael DeGusta,” which pinpoint the actual first-quarter earnings at about $25,000. But, Sony/ATV CEO Marty Bandier is still less than thrilled about the earnings. In a quote from the an email published by Digital Music News, Bandier states that the entire situation is “totally unacceptable and one that cannot be allowed to continue.”

Regardless, we’re sure Pharrell himself isn’t exactly suffering from all of this. After all, this is someone who has his own profile over at Forbes and has been featured on several “Richest Rappers” lists. For more on the situation regarding Pharrell’s earnings from Pandora, check out the in-depth article Business Insider published about the subject.