Subscribe
Hellobeautiful Featured Video
CLOSE

Beyoncé’s new album may have gone platinum in less than a week, but according to reports fans also illegally downloaded the self-titled project nearly a quarter of a million times during the same time span.

According to Billboard, the pirated copies would have earned Bey another $3.8 million in sales — that is if each person who illegally downloaded the album bought a $15.99 copy.

MUST READ: Beyonce Takes Us Behind The Scenes Of ‘Drunk In Love’ In Self-Titled Part 3

“As of Dec. 18, Beyoncé’s entire music catalog was shared more than 2 million times over file sharing sites that leverage the BitTorrent download protocol during 2013 — 239,131 of those were shares of her new self-titled album,” according to music data analyst Musicmetric.

Although $3.8 million is a big loss, Musicmetric’s chief executive Gregory Mead said the news is not all bad.

“The usefulness of BitTorrent data is that it allows record labels to have an incredibly detailed insight into where their artists are popular – right down to the town,” he told Billboard. “Although the file-sharing numbers may be high, it will be possible to translate many of these into buyers.”

MUST READ: 11 Raunchy Secrets We Learned About The Carters’ Sex Life From ‘Beyonce’

Beyonce dropped on December 13th with no promotion or marketing. Sales hit 80,000 in the first three hours.

LIKE HelloBeautiful On Facebook!

RELATED STORIES

Beyonce & Jay Z Get X-Rated! Couple Goes On $6,000 Sex Toy Shopping Spree

5 Looks You Can Have Now Inspired By Beyonce’s New Videos

Check Out This Gallery

BOW DOWN: 2013 Was The Year Of Beyonce
1 photos

The grand return of the Melanin Awards amplifies and honors the finest Black-owned beauty brands with honest reviews, and discusses the evolution of beauty in Hip-Hop culture.