“MILLENNIALS MAKE YOU MONEY.” The words leap out of television screens implanted in the eyeballs of the Cessna-sized chrome alien skull hanging from the ceiling at Terminal 5 in New York, an invitation to hundreds of media buyers who’ve descended upon the midtown concert venue for cable network Adult Swim’s party in celebration of its new slate of shows.
As the next generation of Mad Men (and Mad Women) mingle with celebrities from Charles Barkley to Erykah Badu, snacking on slightly-soggy pretzels and queuing up to get free screen-printed t-shirts, the Terminal 5 crew goes to work disassembling the skull in order to make room onstage for an even more compelling Millennial talisman: Drake, who appears in a cloud of smoke, decked out in all white, ready to perform.
“They asked me to do 15-20 minutes,” the 30-year-old Toronto native tells the crowd after opening with multiplatinum single “Started From The Bottom.” “I said, ‘As long as I’ve got a crowd that’ll get f---d up with me, I’ll play as long as they want.’”
That has been Drake’s motto, in a way, during his dazzling rise. He got his start giving away mixtapes and never really focused on making money by selling recorded music. Drake embodies the new business model for the streaming world: Spread your music as widely and cheaply as possible, then cash in on touring and endorsements. He's not alone.
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones spearheaded the British Invasion of the 1960s as rock infiltrated the global pop world--and now, a half-century later, one might call Drake, The Weeknd and Justin Bieber the Canadian Invasion. Over the past two years, they've clocked over 20 billion streaming spins combined, more than any other triumvirate, parlaying that ubiquity into lucrative tours. All three now gross more than $1 million per stop.
"We live in a world where artists don't really make the money off the music like we did in the Golden Age," explains The Weeknd, 27. "It's not really coming in until you hit the stage."
Drake earned $94 million over the past 12 months, landing at No. 4 on our Celebrity 100 list, followed by cover star The Weeknd (No. 6, $92 million) and Bieber (No. 13, $83.5 million); no country has more stars in our top six than Canada. And for all three aforementioned acts, this year's tally represents a career best.
"Something that we were drinking in Toronto inspired us all," says Canada-born Michael Rapino, chief of Live Nation, the concert promotion giant behind Drake and The Weeknd's tours. "I don't know what it is. But I'm very proud of them, those three great main artists--and others coming."
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