Swift’s Online Video Earnings Pegged at $4.1m

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift‘s VEVO channel earned $4.1m last year on YouTube, according to proprietary data from from Outrigger Media’s analytics platform, Open Slate. Those dollars would typically flow through the platforms to the owner of the channel (usually label, distributor), who then pay the copyright owners (publisher, songwriter) according to arrangements.

The pop star’s VEVO channel also made No. 2 of Open Slate’s 2014 YouTube views list, tracking top monthly views (improperly denoted in the link below). Swift averaged 341m views per month for the year, partially from her subscriber base now over 10.5m. Currently she sits just shy of 800m views for the 10 videos she released in 2014, all in the latter half of the year.

“Our specialty is estimated earnings about pre-roll advertisements, not sponsorships,” said Kate Ritchie, Senior Marketing Manager at Outrigger Media. “Earnings are calculated through proprietary data including quality scores and subscriber gains. We also have access to Ad Exchange, to see inventory.

“Open Slate scores ad-supported content on 250k YouTube channels, providing quality scores and metrics to brands and agencies that target media to buy on the platform. All of those channels have strong quality scores (a 3 digit number).”

EMI Music is oddly situated two slots from Swift on that top monthly views list, No. 5, apparently irregardless of its 2012 acquisition by Universal Music Group and only having released one video last year with less than 500k views. Ritchie confirmed in the past 30-day window, EMI Music’s YouTube channel has racked up 197k views.

View the full list, compiled by VentureBeat.