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Celeb News: Forbes: How Katy Became Top Pop Export
Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 21,846
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Forbes: How Katy Became Top Pop Export
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I call Perry’s guy, who instructs me to look to my left, where dozens of people are strolling past the 30-year-old singer, incognito in a white fedora and oversize Ray-Bans.
She is immersed in a conversation with her personal tour guide, an affable art historian who looks like an Italian version of Ron Weasley. He’s detailing the types of animals that gladiators battled on the floor of the Colosseum, which looms in the background, and she’s already finishing his sentences. “So they had no idea what they were fighting,” she says. He nods. A passing street merchant, apparently duped by Perry’s disguise, tries unsuccessfully to sell her a selfie stick.
“I’m over this,” says Perry, cheerfully. “Let’s go. What else are we going to see?”
Touring explains Perry’s whopping pretax earnings of $135 million over the past 12 months, placing her at No. 3 on this year’s Celebrity 100 list, behind only the boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao–who earned a one-night, once-in-a-generation payday for their snooze of a fight–and more than Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus combined. But unlike some of her fellow divas, she doesn’t shy away from her financial success. “I am proud of my position as a boss, as a person that runs my own company,” says Perry. “I’m an entrepreneur. … I don’t want to shy away from it. I actually want to kind of grab it by its balls.”
That means going global. Of the 124 shows she played during our June-to-June scoring period for earnings, 75 of them took place abroad, spanning 27 different countries and four continents.
She’s averaged a staggering $20 per head per night in merchandise sales on the tour, according to her managers, about four times the industry’s average. All in all, 60% of her total income now flows from outside of North America.
“She has a talent for reaching a very wide audience, and her themes resonate across cultures, race and gender,” says Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones. “The music matches well with the lyrics, and the tunes are infectious. She is a true global artist.”
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Her success is even more impressive when you consider that industrywide annual album sales have plummeted from 785 million to 257 million over the past 15 years. Instead of grumping about Spotify like many of her fellow artists, she’s simply adapted to the times. “Music has changed,” she shrugs. “The record is that launching pad for all kinds of other creative branches.”
“I like to dress up and be Katy Perry when it’s appropriate, when I’m promoting something,” she explains, leading me into a conference room alone and hopping onto a semi-circular white couch. “But I’m Katheryn Hudson on the business side.”
Hudson is her real name. Born in Santa Barbara, Calif., Perry later took her mother’s maiden name to avoid confusion with the actress Kate Hudson. Her parents, born-again Christian ministers who constantly relocated while preaching at different churches, had little money, and Perry recalls a stretch when the family ate exclusively from a food bank. Her parents’ religious fervor was such that mentioning “the forces of evil” at home was forbidden. That meant no Lucky Charms cereal or even deviled eggs. Today they fully support her career, even if they don’t love her songs or provocativeness. “There’s a real agree-to-disagree vibe,” says Perry.
SHE STARTED SINGING at 9 and picked up guitar four years later. Soon Perry was writing songs and busking for $20 a day at local farmers’ markets; a member of her parents’ church with ties to a Christian music label in Nashville took notice.
Two years later a decreasingly pious but still teenage Perry got her first big break: a meeting with producer Glen Ballard, who co-wrote Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and discovered Alanis Morrissette. Perry’s father drove her down to Ballard’s Los Angeles home and waited in the car while she played him a song on her guitar. “I’ve been looking for you since I found Alanis,” Perry remembers him saying. Adds Ballard: “Like other great artists, there was some je ne sais quoi, some intangible, that I knew instantly.”
Perry stayed afloat by buying and selling clothes at local thrift shops and honed her skills at tiny clubs like Hotel Café. A gig there earned her an introduction to Cobb, who brought her to meet his partners in their office, where she made an introduction that immediately convinced them to manage her. “She began doing handrolls, head over heels,” Kirkup recalls. “Arrived at my desk, did a split, held her hands up in the air and said, ‘Hi, I’m Katy!’”
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Finally, in 2007, Perry found a home at Capitol Records. Despite her inexperience and desperation, she displayed uncanny business savvy–with the encouragement of her managers, she insisted on a music-only deal that left her in control of her touring and merchandise revenue. She also turned down a six-figure music publishing advance, electing to keep the underlying rights–and the potential for a greater payday down the line–for herself. In 2009 her strategy paid off with the release of “I Kissed a Girl,” her first chart-topping single.
Along the way Perry started to receive offers for all sorts of endorsement deals. She accepted a handful of seven-figure pacts, sticking to products she actually used: Proactiv, CoverGirl and Adidas. She released two fragrances, Killer Queen and Royal Revolution, for Coty (her next, Mad Potion, is due out later this year). She also took a page out of Ashton Kutcher’s book, electing to take ownership positions instead of flat fees for shilling brands like Popchips. ”One thing I’ve been able to do is know the power of having equity deals,” she says. “I don’t ever like to do things unless I’m really a part of them.”
That long-term approach is already paying off, especially when it comes to touring. Perry returned to Australia last November and grossed $40 million from 23 shows before moving on to the world’s next great live market: China, where she played five concerts. “People appreciate when you come. … They know how hard it is,” she says. Indeed, China’s National Orchestra invited her to a performance of “Roar” played on traditional instruments; the event was broadcast on state-run CCTV, which boasts a viewership of more than 1 billion people.
While many acts treat their burgeoning international legs as logistical burdens, Perry, whose formal education ended with a GED at age 15, tries to turn her tours into education extensions, whether the Colosseum in Rome, the British Museum in London or the Renaissance paintings of Florence. “I’m not one that stays in my hotel room,” says Perry. Adds Cobb: “She wants to learn. And she doesn’t care if it’s an embarrassing question.”
The underlying insecurity that comes when your educational credentials don’t match up with your inherent smarts can be a compelling motivator. It can explain why she sits through business meetings and sifts through the professional minutiae other stars would delegate and why, despite her swagger and success and sex symbol appeal, she can seem the most flattered when people talk business with her. “You’re calling me interesting,” she says to me at one point. From the softness of her tone you’d think I’d just given her the greatest compliment she’d ever received.
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YOU PROBABLY SAW the moment when Katy Perry ascended to icon status: this past Feb. 1, when she rode into the middle of University of Phoenix Stadium on an audio-animatronic lion for a 12-minute, four-outfit performance that generated as much buzz as the Super Bowl itself, down to the “Left Shark” meme spawned by the lackadaisical performance of a dancer in a predator suit.
Perhaps the most surprising part about the show and its aftermath is the fact that Perry didn’t have a specific product to sell (though she tried trademarking Left Shark). Unlike many recent halftime headliners, there was no new album or U.S. concerts to push–she’d already wrapped up the North American leg of her tour, and most of her international dates were sold out.
What it was, Perry realized from the onset, was a branding moment. “It took her from being a big star to the stratosphere,” says Jensen. He reports that since the Super Bowl, Perry’s team has been receiving about two to three big-ticket business opportunities a week from endorsements to joint ventures to movie roles, nearly double what she was getting last year. She still turns down the vast majority of them, but occasionally one strikes her fancy and she takes the plunge. This fall she’ll debut an eponymous mobile app via Glu, the startup that created Kim Kardashian’s wildly successful game; for her efforts she’ll receive a seven-figure advance and share in the revenues. She also became the face of fashion brand Moschino’s new line, and filmed a commercial for Toyota in Thailand.
There are other perks to being in the stratosphere. “I don’t feel like my career is a ticking time bomb,” says Perry. “I don’t feel like I’ll always have to be feeding the meter of show business. I got my spot, yo.”
That means Perry, who has been striving endlessly since she was a teenager, can “park for a minute.” As her tour winds down, she’s building in some vacation time “to live life and have life experiences that influence my music.” And fittingly for this woman who hadn’t left North America until she was old enough to vote, that means trips to Peru (she wants to see Machu Picchu) and Cuba–the kind of places that should keep her on the Celebrity 100 for years to come.
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Read the full story here (it's even longer): http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomal...s-cover-story/
Amazing
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Member Since: 4/4/2014
Posts: 13,402
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She's so down to earth, it's amazing
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 3/22/2012
Posts: 53,769
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60% from international revenues? Can't really call the bitch local now, y'all.
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Member Since: 8/28/2012
Posts: 34,863
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Instead of grumping about Spotify like many of her fellow artists, she’s simply adapted to the times
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 56,234
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All in all, 60% of her total income now flows from outside of North America
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THAT'S what I call GLOBAL.
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Member Since: 8/28/2012
Posts: 34,863
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Originally posted by Phoenixstar
Tl;Dr
The answer is PAYOLA
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So she spent money to earn money?
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Member Since: 1/13/2012
Posts: 17,447
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She's had a great year
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 56,234
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Quote:
Originally posted by Phoenixstar
Tl;Dr
The answer is PAYOLA
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So she used payola and still made $135m? DAMN, imagine her numbers if you factor in the payola she spent. Rich Queen.
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Member Since: 8/18/2013
Posts: 5,288
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So she considers herself more as an entrepreneuse than a chanteuse?
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Member Since: 8/17/2013
Posts: 11,464
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Queen of money.
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Instead of grumping about Spotify like many of her fellow artists, she’s simply adapted to the times
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Member Since: 2/2/2012
Posts: 26,226
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Katy's grown up so much
Now she's the unbeatable Queen of Pop
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Banned
Member Since: 6/9/2011
Posts: 17,950
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more than Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus combined.
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 21,846
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and more than Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus combined.
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She’s averaged a staggering $20 per head per night in merchandise sales on the tour, according to her managers, about four times the industry’s average. All in all, 60% of her total income now flows from outside of North America.
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Instead of grumping about Spotify like many of her fellow artists, she’s simply adapted to the times. “Music has changed,”
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Despite her inexperience and desperation, she displayed uncanny business savvy–with the encouragement of her managers, she insisted on a music-only deal that left her in control of her touring and merchandise revenue.
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Member Since: 6/7/2011
Posts: 41,996
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and more than Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus combined. But unlike some of her fellow divas, she doesn’t shy away
MESS Forbes
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Banned
Member Since: 4/30/2011
Posts: 38,486
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A true global artist
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Member Since: 1/7/2014
Posts: 4,178
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Member Since: 8/13/2012
Posts: 25,749
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The THICK Taylor shade
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 56,234
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She's honestly unstoppable. And this is in her off period.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 7,793
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Of course she doesn't grump about Spotify. She doesn't have the power to pull her music from them. That is Capitol Records' call.
I already contacted Zack to correct his error about Teenage Dream selling 6 million copies in the US. Hopefully he will amend it to just under 3 million before the rest of his receipts get called into question too.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 7,689
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Queen of the world.
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