Jay-Z's Super Bowl Payday Could Come From Music Streams, Touring and Business Deals—not the NFL

The NFL will pay Jay-Z union scale, the minimum it gives every halftime act, when he headlines the Super Bowl LXI halftime show at SoFi Stadium on 14 February 2027. The bigger returns could come from elsewhere: streams of his 30-year catalogue, a stadium business that has just set records, and the companies he owns.

The two headliners he booked before himself, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny, each saw their US streams more than double the day after they performed.

Apple Music and the NFL confirmed the booking during Monday Night Football on 26 October, posting 'GOAT's out of the bag' on X. The 56-year-old closed his Jay-Z 30 tour at the same stadium two days earlier.

'From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey,' Jay-Z said in a statement.

The booking reverses his own stance. When his company Roc Nation agreed in 2019 to co-produce the show, he said he had told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, 'If this is about me performing at the Super Bowl, then we can just end this conversation now.'

Goodell said on Monday his only request then was 'that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him.'

Puck reported that Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber had also been considered.

Union Scale and No Appearance Fee

'The NFL covers all costs associated with the show and does pay the performers' union scale,' Brian McCarthy, the NFL's communications chief, said in 2022. That minimum under the SAG-AFTRA contract has been reported at a little over $1,000 (£747) a day.

The larger sums go to the league and the broadcaster. Apple Music reportedly pays the NFL close to $50 million (£37.4 million) a year to sponsor the show. Disney, which airs the game, has sold out its in-game advertising, with 30-second spots reported at $8 million to $9 million (£6 million to £6.7 million).

What Halftime Did for Lamar and Bad Bunny

Lamar's catalogue drew 70.9 million official on-demand US streams on 10 February 2025, the day after Super Bowl LIX, up 153 per cent on the previous Monday, according to Luminate.

His Grand National Tour with SZA, announced two months before the game, took $256.4 million (£191.5 million) on its North American leg, Billboard reported, overtaking Beyoncé and Jay-Z's On the Run II as the highest-grossing co-headline tour.

Bad Bunny's set at Levi's Stadium this February averaged 128.2 million viewers. The next day his US streams reached 99.6 million, up from 36.2 million a week earlier, a figure already lifted by his Grammys win, Luminate figures showed.

His world tour, already underway when he played, closed in July with $467.5 million (£349.2 million) from 55 shows, according to Billboard.

Jay-Z's Catalogue and Record Stadium Run

Jay-Z has not released a solo album since 4:44 in 2017, and his Spotify page listed 50.6 million monthly listeners on 27 October.

His three Yankee Stadium concerts on 10, 11, and 12 July grossed $42.3 million (£31.6 million) from 136,934 tickets, a record for a rapper, according to Touring Data. The run continued in London, Paris, and Los Angeles. No further dates have been announced.

Roc Nation's NFL Fee and Jay-Z's Other Deals

The NFL money that reaches Jay-Z's business goes to Roc Nation for producing the show, not to him for performing in it. That contract is worth $5 million (£3.7 million) a year, Puck reported, and was extended in October 2024 on undisclosed terms.

In 2021, Square paid $297 million (£222 million) for a majority stake in Jay-Z's Tidal streaming service, and Moët Hennessy bought half of his Armand de Brignac champagne brand for an undisclosed sum. A $5.4 billion (£4 billion) Times Square casino plan backed by Roc Nation was rejected by a community advisory committee in September 2025, ending its licence bid.

Reaction has been split. 'How do you pick yourself for the halftime show?' one X user asked. Another wrote, 'People are going to cry about Jay-Z headlining the Super Bowl.' Beyoncé, Rihanna, Eminem, and Dr. Dre joined him during the Jay-Z 30 run. No halftime guests have been announced.