$0.01 profit: the biggest music flops ever

Kreayshawn’s debut album, Somethin’ About Kreay, scored her a grand profit of 1 US cent. And with such flawless cover art too! Picture: Supplied.
Source: NewsComAu

A MUCH-HYPED US rapper has tweeted fans the royalties from sales of her debut album – the grand total of 1 US cent.

24-year-old rapper Kreayshawn, aka Natassia Zolot, this week shared a screenshot of her bank account with fans, showing a payment of $ 0.001USD and the caption “This is my cut I got on my album sales.”

Kreayshawn tweeted her fans the dismal profits from her debut album. Picture: Twitter.
Source: Twitter

Albums flop all the time, but this wasn’t an independently financed, self-released record sold out of the back of Kreayshawn’s car boot. Released in September 2012 via Columbia Records, Somethin’ About Kreay arrived off the back of the rapper’s viral hit Gucci Gucci, which has been viewed more than 45 million times on YouTube.
Despite this, the album debuted at number 112 on the US charts, selling a paltry 3,900 copies in its first week of release.
Subtract promotional costs, producer fees, music video budgets, and how much do you get? One cent, apparently.
Kreayshawn’s not the first musician to experience the humiliation of a massively underperforming album. Here are some of the biggest flops in music history:
Music’s biggest flops

‘SPICE GIRLS FOREVER,’ the girls insisted. They split up soon after. Picture: supplied.
Source: NewsComAu

Spice Girls – Forever

After the world-conquering success of their first two albums, the Spice Girls seemed to unravel just as quickly as they’d burst to fame. While the pop classics Spice and Spiceworld sold a combined 45 million copies worldwide, their limp, R&B-leaning third album Forever received dismal reviews and shifted little over a million copies worldwide (in the US, one of their biggest markets, it barely scraped the top 40).

16,000 people bought this album. Are you one of them? If so, how do you sleep at night? Picture: supplied.
Source: NewsComAu

Kevin Federline – Playing with Fire

Britney Spears’ latest album has been met with a muted response, but she can at least console herself with the fact she’s done better than K-Fed. Released when he was married to the pop star, K-Fed’s first (and only) album arrived in 2006 with some of the worst reviews in music history, and debuted at number 151 in the US. To date, it’s sold roughly 16,000 copies, which is surely around 16,000 more than it should have.
Guns N Roses – Chinese Democracy

The rock band’s first album in 15 years, Chinese Democracy arrived in 2008 after a string of delays and constant retooling from frontman Axl Rose. It’s the most expensive album ever made, with production costs totalling $ 13 million US. And the reception? US sales of around 600,000 – respectable, but nowhere near enough to recoup the millions spent.

The public’s love affair with Duffy was short-lived. Picture: supplied.
Source: NewsComAu

Duffy – Endlessly

Dufy’s 2008 debut Rockferry was a perfectly-crafted slice of retro pop, propelled to worldwide sales of almost 10 million thanks to the massive success of single Mercy. For the follow-up, Duffy parted ways with producer Bernard Butler and recorded a new batch of songs on the quick. To date, it’s sold around a tenth the copies of its predecessor.

Garth Brooks (at left) and his guyliner-wearin’, soul patch-rockin’ alter ego, Chris Gaines. Fans were not amused.
Source: NewsComAu

Garth Brooks – Garth Brooks in the Life of Chris Gaines

Garth Brooks was one of America’s most bankable country stars during the 1990s, so he must’ve given his record company a heart attack in 1999 when he told them he wanted to lose the cowboy hat, don guyliner and release an album using the fictitious persona of alternative rocker ‘Chris Gaines’. Notoriously conservative country fans were not amused, the album sold a fraction as much as its predecessors and all but ended his career.

Why so forlorn, Leanne? …Oh yeah. Picture: supplied.
Source: NewsComAu

Leanne Mitchell – self-titled

While The Voice is hugely popular here in Australia and a guarantee of chart success for its winners – at least in the short term – it’s a very different story in the UK. Leanne Mitchell won the 2012 UK season, but her triumphant winners’ single, the Whitney Houston cover Run To You, could only manage number 45 on the charts. It was worse news when Mitchell released her debut album, which missed the top 100 completely.


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