BigXthaPlug Says He Made $1 Million Off Streams Last Quarter. I Ran the Numbers. Here's What Holds Up and What Doesn't

BigXthaPlug went on Shannon Sharpe's Club Shay Shay this week and dropped a number: "I made $1 million last quarter just off streams." XXL wrote it up Wednesday, the same week his album "Better With Time" drops, which is Friday, Oct. 30. So naturally I wanted to know: is that real, or is that rollout?

First, what he actually said, per XXL. Sharpe brought up artists who say streaming takes advantage of them. X's answer: "[Those other artists are] signed to labels. It's a difference. I went independent. My distribution label get a small percent but once I recoup, I get all... I'ma say it like this. I made $1 million last quarter just off streams." Then the real point: "Now, if I go sign to a major, I have leverage. I don't care about the money. I got money now. So, I just care about my percentage." XXL says he's with UnitedMasters, the distribution company that works with independents like Brent Faiyaz and Vic Mensa.

Now the numbers. Kworb, the public Spotify tracker, had BigX at 5.79 billion total Spotify streams as of its Oct. 29 update, with about 4.32 million streams a day across everything he's on, and about 3.88 million a day on songs where he's the lead artist. His top tracks: "Mmhmm" at 568.6 million, "Levels" at 397.1 million, "Back On My BS" at 377.0 million, "Texas" at 370.1 million. The hottest right now is "Hell At Night" with Ella Langley, pulling about 493,000 a day.

Here's my math, and it's mine, not his or Spotify's. If 3.88 million lead-artist streams a day held for a full quarter of about 92 days, that's roughly 357 million Spotify streams in three months. For $1 million to come from those alone, it'd take about 0.28 cents of income per stream, after his distributor's cut. Big caveat: Kworb shows today's daily pace, not last quarter's, and a pre-album push can juice those numbers.

Is 0.28 cents reasonable? Spotify will tell you there is no per-stream rate. On its Loud & Clear site, the company says it pays roughly two-thirds of music revenue to rights holders based on "streamshare," your share of all streams, and that in 2025, capturing one in every million streams on Spotify was worth, on average, $11,000. It also says nearly 1,500 artists generated $1 million on Spotify. So the per-stream number moves with where your listeners are and whether they pay for Premium. I can't pin down his exact rate, and neither can anybody outside his accounting.

But here's what matters: he said "streams," not "Spotify." Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, Tidal and the rest pay too. Spotify is only one piece of his streaming pie, so the Spotify piece doesn't have to carry the full million. In my read, the claim passes the smell test for an independent artist doing these numbers. That's the opinion part. The fact part: no outsider can verify it, and he didn't show a statement.

Where I'd push back is the word "made." Fans are asking whether that's gross or what lands in his account. Recording royalties are a different pot from publishing, and Spotify says about four-fifths of its royalty pool goes to recordings and one-fifth to publishing. If he co-wrote with producers, they split the publishing. Features get split too. And "once I recoup" implies there was something to recoup from UnitedMasters first. None of that makes him wrong. It means $1 million "off streams" and $1 million in his pocket aren't automatically the same sentence.

Now the interesting part, the one nobody is saying out loud. Why say this, on that show, this week? My opinion: it's a pitch. He told Sharpe he'd only care about "my percentage" if he signs to a major. Saying "I clear seven figures a quarter on my own" on Shannon Sharpe's show, two days before your album, is how you set the price. Labels watch these interviews. It's the same move as a free agent leaking his market. I'm not saying he's shopping a deal. I'm saying he just told every label what the opening number is.

And the receipts he does have are real. 5.79 billion is not a fake number. A song with a country artist doing nearly half a million a day tells you his audience isn't just rap. That's the kind of crossover reach a label pays for, and he knows it.

Dez's take: I believe the order of magnitude. I'd bet the real number has asterisks, because they all do. The actual story is that an independent rapper is publicly flexing streaming income as leverage, instead of crying about it. That flips the usual script. Whether a major meets him at "my percentage" is the next chapter.

Not answered: whether $1 million was gross or net, and what share came from Spotify versus other services.