Beyonce Loses $4 Million on Pirated Copies of New LP
Despite slaying every release in the music industry in recent memory by obtaining platinum status in a mere two weeks, Beyonce's surprise titular release has also been illegally downloaded an equally staggering amount.
According to Business Insider, in addition to selling more than 1 million copies in the first week after Queen B sneakily dropped it in the dead of night, Beyonce was illegally downloaded 240,000 times in the same period.
55,000 pirated copies were snatched up the day of its release alone.
The "Grown Woman" singer's critically acclaimed audio-visual masterpiece has (and still is) going for $16 a download on iTunes. This would mean the Mistress of the Universe lost at least $4 million in sales just in that first week.
And seeing as the illegal downloads are continuing at a reported average of around 20,000 copies a day, that number is going to look like a drop in the bucket when it's all said and done.
Poor Beyonce! Here she is all smiling and sultry at Coney Island during a much, much happier time.
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