Summary
- Despite band shake-ups and the tragic death of member Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac continues to make a fortune.
- Songs like "Go Your Own Way" and "Dreams" have contributed to Fleetwood Mac's success.
- Band members, including Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine McVie, have sold off the rights to their catalogs for millions of dollars.
Having staying power in the music industry is seen as one of the greatest accomplishments. Fleetwood Mac, undoubtedly, has that staying power. Despite being formed in 1967 and finding mainstream notoriety in 1977 with their iconic album "Rumours", Fleetwood Mac still makes an absolute fortune from touring. At least, they did before major band shake-ups including the tragic death of member Christine McVie.
Of course, trauma and tragedy have always been an inspiration behind the creation of some of Fleetwood Mac's best songs. This includes the song that helped make the band over $100 million.
Fleetwood Mac Is One Of The Most Successful Rock Bands Of All Time
For many, the sound of Fleetwood Mac is the apotheosis of a certain vibe in 1970s Southern California. For others, it's the music of the witch and the fall. To everyone else, it's just fantastic easy listening with heart and soul, and a little bit of pain to boot. Regardless, Fleetwood Mac's albums and all of their songs have made a humongous impact on the world.
While band member Stevie Nicks tends to appeal to the American Horror Story/witchy crowd, Mick Fleetwood's rousing "Tusk" has become aht marching anthem for the USC Trojans. In short, everyone from the artsy crowds to the football fanatics adore Fleetwood Mac.
1977's "Rumours" was their most famous album, but it certainly wasn't their only one. The same goes for their most iconic line-up, which featured founding members Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, and Christine McVie, who were not the originals.
In short, their legacy is varied, determined only by how the listener feels. Whether they like this line-up or that one, their older music or their newer songs, and ultimately where Fleetwood Mac landed in the story of their lives. In any case, Fleetwood Mac's legacy rivals that of The Rolling Stones and even The Beatles.
"Dreams" Made Fleetwood Mac Over $100 Million
Technically, two of Fleetwood Mac's songs have made over $100 million. But one of them edges out the other due to a number of factors. According to The Guardian, "Go Your Own Way" is partially responsible for earning the band $100 million. That's before the net, that is.
"Go Your Own Way" was included in the 1977 masterpiece that is "Rumours". It was an instant commercial success and landed near the top of the U.S.'s Billboard Hot 100 chart.
While it's almost impossible to determine how much one song in particular made a band, especially in the days of album sales, numerous sources claim that both "Go Your Own Way" and "Dreams" could be worth that amount. The latter may edge out "Go Your Own Way" due to factors mentioned in the paragraphs below...
"Dreams" is one of the brainchilds of Stevie Nicks, arguably Fleetwood Mac's most recognizable band member. Unsurprisingly, it came from the band's most profitable album, "Rumours". It came out of her during a rather emotionally difficult time in her life, as most of the songs on "Rumours" did. After all, it is known as a breakup album as all the members were going through some romantic upheaval when they collaborated on it. That just goes to show how sorrow can breed masterful art.
In the United States alone, "Dreams" and its album "Rumours" sold one million copies and reached the very top spot of the Billboard Hot 100. It was Fleetwood Mac's singular number-one single when it was released. It found similar status in Canada and The United Kingdom. Worldwide, it sold a whopping 45 million copies.
"Dreams" was clearly the big hit on a record that had a number of them, including "Go Your Own Way".
The song has been covered by a number of different artists, who've had to pay royalties, and been used in many films and TV shows. In short, it has been hugely profitable in the decades since its release. But things took a major turn in 2020 when a viral TikTok video by Nathan Apodaca absolutely blew up. In fact, the video was viewed more than 3 billion times as well as replicated by countless others.
The video of Apodaca drinking a bottle of Oceanspray while on a skateboard listening to "Dreams" caught on with the TikTok generation and caused the song to land at the top of the Apple Music and Spotify charts. Due to this, numerous publications, including Rolling Stone, started marketing the song again, placing it on lists of the best songs of all time.
It also promoted an additional 82,000 copies of "Rumours" to be sold in the U.S. alone, according to The Guardian. This was an incredible 43 years since its initial release.
According to Ditto Music, Spotify pays artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream. 70% of that amount goes to the artist while the other 30% is sent right to Spotify themselves. While this is an average, it does give us some idea about how much the band, their label, and their representatives have made on "Dreams".
At the time of this writing "Dreams" is by far and away the most streamed Fleetwood Mac song on Spotify. They have over 1.3 billion streams. 1,361,350,049 to be exact (at least at the time this article was written). According to Business Insider, that means the song made somewhere between $3 million and $5 million (depending on certain factors) on Spotify alone.
While one could argue that "Go Your Own Way" or other songs on "Rumours" are responsible for making the band over $100 million, the sheer fact that "Dreams" remains their most popular song on music streamers like Spotify seems to disprove it.
For reference, "Go Your Own Way" as over 849 million plays on Spotify, below "The Chain" and "Everywhere", and far, far, far below "Dreams".
How Valuable Is Fleetwood Mac's Music Catalog?
In January 2021, Mick Fleetwood sold the rights to "Go Your Own Way" and the rest of his percentage of Fleetwood Mac's royalties to the music publisher BMG. He is far from the only Fleetwood Mac band member to sell off the rights to their songs for outlandishly lucrative deals.
While the precise amount of money he sold his work for is unknown, it is estimated to be around $100 million. This is a good thing for Fleetwood who, according to Consequence, has dealt with a number of financial issues over the years including the loss of his restaurant in the 2023 Maui wildfires.
In 2020, Stevie Nicks sold the majority stake in her catalog to the music publisher Primary Wave for an undisclosed amount thought to be between $80 million and $100 million, according to The Guardian. Hipgnosis bought 100% of ex-Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsay Buckingham's royalties for a number likely similar to that of Fleetwood and Nicks'.
The late Christien McVie, who was known for being a prolific songwriter, also sold 100% of the rights to her catalog to Hipgnosis in 2021. AGain, the acquisition number is unknown but, according to Variety, it is thought to be close to $100 million. At the time of this writing, it is unknown if John McVie sold his rights to Fleetwood Mac's catalog.
For the sake of this argument, Fleetwood Mac's catalog is likely worth around $500,000 million or more. That's taking into account all five main members, what they likely sold their catalogs for, and accounting for the rights they retained.
