(NEXSTAR) – Taking the stage during halftime at the Super Bowl is one of the most sought-after gigs for a recording artist. But it doesn’t pay much at all — at least not upfront.
The NFL does not pay any appearance fees for entertainers who perform during the mid-game spectacle, either directly or through sponsors. But the artists do get paid for their time, even if it’s much less than they’re used to.
“The NFL covers all costs associated with the show and does pay the performers’ union scale. There is not an appearance fee, but the artists are indeed paid union scale,” Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, told Newsweek in 2022.
With so many artists, musicians and dancers on the stage at any given halftime show, it’s unclear how much “union scale” means for different entertainers. SAG-AFTRA, which represents dancers and vocalists in addition to actors, sets its performers’ rates at around $1,100 per day, or slightly more depending on their expected duties.
That’s not much for the country’s top recording artists, but they almost had to settle for less lucrative deals: Ahead of Super Bowl XLIX, the NFL flirted with the idea of making the performers pay for the privilege of taking the stage, the Associated Press reported.
Not surprisingly, none of the potential artists or musical acts were receptive to the idea.
“I put my foot down very early in the courtship,” Katy Perry, who played the halftime show at XLIX, said of her negotiations. “I said, ‘Look guys, here’s where I draw a line in the sand.'”
While Perry and other halftime performers don’t pay to play (yet), at least one other artist — The Weeknd — contributed millions of his own money to cover production costs. One of the artist’s managers told Billboard in 2021 that The Weeknd forked over $7 million to fund his elaborate vision for the show.
That’s not the norm, of course. The production costs related to the performance are usually covered in full by the NFL and the halftime show’s sponsors. (In 1993, the NFL also made an exception for Michael Jackson, and agreed to donate $100,000 to the singer’s Heal the World Foundation, The New York Times reported in 2009.)
Performers, then, need to decide whether they feel it’s worth their time to plan, prepare for, and perform at the Super Bowl. In most cases (and in terms of exposure), it probably is.
In addition to the millions of viewers who see their performances, artists who take the stage during halftime can expect a bump in streaming numbers and sales. The Weeknd, for instance, sold about four times as many albums on the day of his Super Bowl performance compared to the day before, and his streaming rates more than tripled, Forbes reported. Rihanna, meanwhile, saw a 390% increase in song sales after her performance in 2023, according to Forbes, as well as a 640% jump in Spotify streams.
Sales and streams aside, it’s also a pretty coveted gig, if you can get it. Seth Dudowsky, the head of music at the NFL, said Chris Martin of Coldplay put it best when he was asked to describe the enormity of the experience.
“[The] Super Bowl of music is the Super Bowl,” Martin reportedly said.
