Artists At Coachella Aren T Bringing Home Big Paychecks

In 2017, The New Yorker revealed that Coachella would be paying that year’s headliners—Radiohead, Beyoncé, and Kendrick Lamar—between $3 and $4 million. Of course, Beyoncé later cancelled her performance because she was pregnant with twins. Instead, she is performing at this year’s Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival. Those fees may seem high to you, but Beyoncé’s sets and backup singers, dancers, marching band, etc. had to cost her a pretty penny. Also, Coachella is practically printing their own money, they make so much. In 2016, the music festival brought in $94 million. Beyoncé made even more in 2017–$105 million. In 2016, her “Formation” world tour made about $5.2 million a night, for $256 million in 49 shows. Beyoncé isn’t keeping all of her Coachella paycheck. She announced that she’s donating $100,000 to four historically black colleges and universities. Queen Bey is once again performing at Coachella this weekend. Other performers aren’t making as much as Beyoncé. Cardi B actually lost money performing at Coachella. She recently told Sirius XM that she’s making $70,000 for each of two performances at Coachella. Not too bad—however, the promoters booked her before she blew up, so it’s a pay cut from her current rate. However, Cardi B actually had to invest her own money into her stage. The math was helpfully done by Digital Music News, who figured out that Cardi B may have spent $460,000 into the two weekends of performances. Her stage costs $300,000 per show to set up and Coachella does not pay that bill. In her Sirius XM interview, the rapper said: