David Baddiel reveals tiny amount Three Lions song makes on Spotify despite millions of streams
DAVID Baddiel says he got just 0.003p a time from Spotify for footie anthem Three Lions during the 2018 World Cup.
The comedian and writer admitted he did well out of the song when it was first released for the 1996 Euros.
But he said he, Frank Skinner and band The Lightning Seeds have seen little in the way of royalties since the rise of Spotify and other online services.
Asked what the record had brought him apart from greater fame, Baddiel said: “Not money, for a start.
“It brought me, Frank and Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds a fair wedge.
“But not since Spotify took over has it brought us much money. In fact, when England played Colombia in the 2018 World Cup, it was downloaded four million times — for which Frank, Ian and I received £1,200 from Spotify.”
He added that, despite the huge success of the song in the Nineties, he and his wife Morwenna Banks have never flashed their money around.
He told the Comfort Eating podcast: “It (Three Lions) came out in 1996, and it went platinum in 1996 – just to be clear we’ve done OK.”
He added: “Let me tell you something that just happened today. Because I am from sort of lower middle-class immigrant stock, and I’ve done alright in my life, but I find it quite hard, as does my wife Morwenna Banks, who is from rural poverty in Cornwall, to actually flex anything.
“Yesterday, two towels arrived, that have a high thread count that were quite fluffy. And that’s because we sat there the other day, having got out the bath, saying ‘Why are we drying ourselves with these rags – surely we can do better that this?’
“It had never occurred to us in years and years and years.”