Over the last 20 months, as Adele’s album “21” spent week after week in the Top 10 — a total of 79 weeks in the United States, with 24 of them at No. 1 — envious record executives have, between salivations, wondered what kind of profit all those sales would bring.
That number has now been revealed: nearly $67 million, according to recently filed accounts by Adele’s label, XL Recordings. And that’s just for last year. (Nor does that number include Adele’s songwriting royalties or concert fees, in which neither XL nor its parent company, Beggars Group, has any interest.)
Plus, they revealed: “The next Adele album may not come for some years, and it’s impossible to predict its likely sales,” the company said. “We therefore regard this year’s figures as exceptional.”