base talk HDD: Capitol lost $25M+ from Halsey’s last album

[mathekr]

5 minutes ago, Aslan said:

Does she have to pay that 25 million back? That’s the main question
because if so they will be waiting a long long time…

No, usually the label will just take the L.

The thing is, like mentioned on the article, it will be difficult for her to get a big deal elsewhere if she lost that much for the label.

[WitnessOblivia]

Well..it's a fantastic album!

But..how the hell did they lose 25m? The film surely couldn't have been that expensive? 

[Beyonnaise]

I think this does speak to the very unique space she has occupied in music (and not necessarily in a good way).

 

She blew up on Tumblr and pulled Lana-esque numbers with Badlands which baffled people because she seemed to come out of nowhere. Then she started pivoting away from being a niche artist and did features for A-listers like Bieber. This led to Closer which is one is one of the biggest songs ever. Thus Hopeless Fountain Kingdom leaned much more into mainstream pop (lead single a Needed Me rehash, Devil In Me being a Sia reject), but she tried to keep her indie fans happy by concocting a forced, convoluted Romeo + Juliet storyline for it. She scored a couple more pop hits with Bad At Love and Eastside, and got her biggest solo smash with Without Me. Then she tried to revive pop rock a couple years too early with Nightmare and it failed to become a hit, so Manic ultimately felt muted. I could see Capitol in 2020 being reticent to just have her do another safe pop album, since Graveyard and You Should Be Sad didn't really take off either, so a "riskier" album to advance her status as an artist and appeal to critics (with the first mainstream album produced by NIN) made logical sense. But footing the bill for $25M with an IMAX movie is just baffling  She's also not a huge celebrity, so it's not like people were just so curious to see what a Halsey movie looks like the way they are with Beyonce and Taylor.

[reymiu]

1 hour ago, Vrx. said:

Isn’t this the same number quoted for ARTPOP’s floppage? How does this figure always pop out? No way the promo cycles are that expensive 

The movie probably cost most of the marketing budget

[Skirt]

That’s what happens when you make your best song (Nightmare) a stand-alone single.

 

 

I loved the two previous albums but she completely lost me with this one.

 

There are like 3 cute songs on it, the rest is pretentious noise. 

[Gui Blackout]

I always thought it was pretty shocking that a label would sign off on an expensive visual album from an artist that was not likely to return the investment

 

I don't agree that it alienated her fanbase tho, they seemed to love it

[stevenisFADING]

I mean, honestly, it was worth it for the fact that both the movie and record were excellent.

However, they chose to fumble the single choices and didn't even try to push the most mainstream one like Honey or even just lean into the harder track Easier Than Lying.

Oh well I absolutely loved the film, album, and the f*cking tour. 

[Chaos Angel]

I respect her saying **** the charts and making quality music because the album was her best yet  Love the energy 

[Cameltoe Chariot]

As someone who was always lowkey annoyed by Halsey and had zero interest in her work, I found her last album to be incredible and I loved the film for it too. I even bought the vinyl because I was so impressed 

[raven]

the fact that no one talked about this album past its first 2 days of release idk why they thought a big budget imax release was gonna be anything but money lost, she's never had that kind of mainstream power

 

[lonnie]

Spending 25M on Halsey, not being shady, seems like a terrible move on the management's part. I don't know if there's still a major pop star that even gets half that kind of money towards promotion anymore. Portions of the money should have been used to promote the album better like who goes to see a popstar's visuals in the cinema

And the fact that Halsey won't see even ten percent of that money from the project itself like it just goes to show how dumb and greedy labels are they probably saw Billie's, Taylor's and Olivia's successes as young female songwriters portraying vulnerability and tried to cash in but in a dumb way. Serves them right but poor Halsey getting discontinued like what a mess

[Pheromosa]

This is has to be a money laundering scheme because theres no way 

[Papi Juancho]

Her artpop era 

[Reverse Warholian]

2 hours ago, auxiliary said:

that $25m figure comes from the film probably. i mean, it was shot on location in Prague in the middle of the pandemic, plus, on imax film stock which is disgustingly expensive… i don’t understand why the label even funded it. i say this as a stan, i could care less about a Halsey movie. i adore the album and i’m grateful they got to do it, but the film really was the nail in the coffin from the start. 

I imagine the intention of the film was to promote the album rather than sell tickets, but its theatrical release was limited to just 2 days across 100 locations in North America. It had a PTA (per theatre avg) of $8k which is quite strong for a limited pandemic release with socially distanced seating still in effect at most venues. By contrast, the average wide theatrical release plays for a 17-45 day window at 2,000+ locations and goes to VOD and/or streaming immediately after. 

 

It was then quietly released to HBO Max six weeks after its 2-day theatrical run with no options for people to view it during this waiting period, making the album's main promo vehicle largely inaccessible. There was no other promo in the interim aside from like a handful of interviews published to her YouTube channel and a pay per view concert experience. No performances. No music videos. Weak playlisting. No followup radio single. Also worth noting the movie mostly features clips of about 2/3 of the tracklist and cuts out other tracks (honey, YAFT, Whispers, The Tradition) completely. Very messy and not the best marketing plan. 

 

They should've just released the movie to streaming from the get-go and forgone the expenses of shooting in IMAX. I don't doubt there were unrecouped costs from this project, but the $25M figure does seem exaggerated. 

 

2 hours ago, Delusional said:

Sounds like they are just mad she left and they’re trying to lower her value with a fake stat lmao

Also a possibility. There were rumors of her shopping a new album around in the last week which sparked a label bidding war, so I wouldn't be surprised if Capitol went sour grapes on one of their anchor acts for walking away. I wonder if she'll discuss this on her radio show? 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Reverse Warholian

[vuelve88]

Mess. And she called them out, wanting them to spend even more on her. 

[JonginBey]

A Gaga tea.

[terrorblade]

and they hired Max Martin for her last single too

[terrorblade]

also lowkey her/her team's fault for not pushing the obvious smash

Edited April 20, 2023 by terrorblade

[terrorblade]

3 hours ago, wastedpotential said:

IICHHIWA

[Bosque]

I for one applaud her for fully realizing her creative vision with some old guy's money, even if said creative vision was bad and also pretentious

[Armani?]

3 hours ago, Lose My Breath said:

If her last album did 3 million in activity, that per album cost of 12.99 would be almost 40 million USD

It includes mostly streaming units

[Ice Cream Skies]

Wow. That sucks.

[Ice Cream Skies]

Honestly, this is the only Halsey album I've liked. But her team/the label totally dropped the ball when promoting it. Making an IMAX movie then making it completely inaccessible for people to view outside of the initial release is just a waste of money. They could have shaped videos for songs out of the film and used it for further promotion, that way the money invested would cover the entire promotional campaign with subsequent singles. But no, we got one weird/awkward video for IANAWIAAG, then zero promotion after that. Weird decision making all around.

 

At this point, Halsey needs to decide who she truly is artistically and just move forward. 

[LoveInStereo]

The songs were good but the concept was insufferable so I’m not even remotely surprised. A have a high tolerance for stupid ****. The average person isn’t putting up with Halsey

[perfectillusion204]

Obviously her record label knew the sound/direction she was going in. Thew knew about the movie, etc. They set themselves up to fail essentially. Anyone with a brain could've told you that the album was not gonna be commercially successful. However, it is clearly one of her best albums & her fans think so too.