The Payout From A Viral Video

As mentioned several times previously on this blog, a viral video on YouTube can pay huge dividends to an artist's popularity, but doesn't necessarily add too much to his pocketbook in the grand scheme of things.

Take Psy's "Gangnam Style," for instance. With over 1.2 billion views, he managed to make about $8.6 million from YouTube, a nice chunk of change to be sure, but it seems way low considering the massive world-wide coverage. Of course, Psy made his big dough from personal appearances and pistachio nut commercials afterwards, which made the money from YouTube look like just a drop in the bucket.

Here's a great infographic that outlines the money made by the 30 most watched music videos, as well as some general rules on what it takes to go viral. It also takes a look at OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" and the massive effort it took to produce.

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