While viewership nearly broke records, the star’s compensation for the 13-minute spectacle might surprise you.
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime performance nearly broke records with 128.2 million viewers, yet the global superstar reportedly walked away without a traditional performance fee.
There is a minimum fee required by performers unions, but there was no multi-million dollar fee collected.
The Feb. 8 show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, secured the fourth spot on the list of most-viewed Super Bowl halftime shows.
Despite the massive scale of the production, the NFL maintains a long-standing policy of not paying its headlining talent a traditional salary.
“We do not pay the artists,” an NFL spokesperson told Forbes in 2016, a statement reaffirmed by E! News. “We cover expenses and production costs.”
The league and sponsors, such as Apple Music, partner to handle the costs of the 13-minute production, including the stage, lighting, and outfits. The performance is essentially viewed as a free concert for fans and a massive commercial for the headliner’s discography.
While a multi-million-dollar appearance fee is absent, performers are typically paid a minimum, union-required fee for their labor.
SAG-AFTRA contracts equate to approximately $1,000 a day for performers, per iHeart. According to E! News, past headliners like Usher have received around $671 for the performance and about $1,800 for rehearsals.
The real financial incentive for performers lies in the subsequent surge in music consumption.
Yahoo reported that past headliners like Usher and Kendrick Lamar saw Spotify streaming boosts of 550% and 430%, respectively, following their appearances.
Billboard data showed that Bad Bunny had his second-largest streaming day ever on the Monday after the game, generating 98 million on-demand streams.
Despite the high reach, the performance faced unique competition and internal ratings fluctuations.
According to Yahoo, Bad Bunny’s viewership in the 8:15 p.m. window represented a 7% dip from the game’s peak second-quarter audience of 137.9 million. During the same period, a pre-taped “All-American Halftime Show” hosted by Turning Point USA and featuring Kid Rock drew a peak of approximately 5 million concurrent viewers on YouTube.