Usher did an incredible job performing at the LVIII Super Bowl. His set was roughly 13 minutes and he seamlessly ripped through a melody of his numbers in an epic show of song and dance the artist is known for. Ordinarily, he clocks in a few hundred thousand per show. However, he earned a paycheck of ZERO for headling one of the biggest shows of his career. That's right, he performed for free!

Believe it or not, that's not unusual, it's a norm. Turns out none of the performers at the 2024 game including, Reba McEntire, Post Malone, and Andra Day made a dime for their performances.

Usher opened the Apple Super Halftime show with his 2005 track, ‘Caught Up’ and it got a surge of 2,000%, his largest gain to date. Other set songs like 'Love In This Club,' 'Yeah,' and 'Bad Girl' picked up 1000%. Plus, his duet with Alicia Keys, 'My Boo,' surged more than 600%.

Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show
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Why would artists this big, perform for free? Because the Super Bowl has the biggest audience in the world. Sunday night's game had an estimated 100 million viewers. So, how does an artist make a paycheck for a day's work? According to Forbes, artists make money off of record sales, streaming, and various other royalties.

With Spotify's streaming platform alone, Usher's music has seen an enormous jump in percentage gains and sales. opened the Apple Super Halftime show with his 2005 track, ‘Caught Up’ and it got a surge of 2,000%, his largest gain to date. Other set songs like 'Love In This Club,' 'Yeah,' and 'Bad Girl' picked up 1000%. Plus, his duet with Alicia Keys, 'My Boo,' surged more than 600%.

Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show
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In addition to a massive boost, streams the R&B superstar dropped his ninth studio album, "Coming Home," on Friday, February 9. No doubt headlining the world's biggest stage added to the highly anticipated release and the album was already guaranteed to claim the number-one spot on the charts.

Ahead of his halftime show, Usher also announced the launch of his new SKIMS Mens Underwear and T-Shirt Line. Customers will get special access, exclusively on skms.com, to the limited-edition track "Naked" for one week.

If that doesn't have some extra money in the bank, Usher let fans know he is headed out on tour. Of course, he took full advantage of his debut on the world's biggest stage to make the big announcement.

Tickets went on sale Monday, February 12, for his Past, Present Future Tour which jumps off August 16. So, far the tour is scheduled to make 24 stops to cities across the nation, with more dates to be announced in the coming days.

So, if you were wondering how an artist like Usher could benefit from a free performance, now you know. Planning on the part of his management is how he will make a killing off of having the honor to perform during the Super Bowl.

It's also worth noting that the league takes care of all expenses for artists performing at the Super Bowl fees for a show on this scale cost millions just in stage, sound, and manpower. Usher's production for the entire set, travel, halftime show ad campaign, etc. was covered by the NFL.

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Gallery Credit: Kaiya Shunyata

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