At 17, he dropped out of school and ran away from home. The son of Ethiopian immigrants who fled during the east African famine of the 1980s, he was born in Toronto and raised by his mother and grandmother.

It's the model the Weeknd has pursued from the beginning of his career. It's akin to the freemium model that's worked so well for apps ranging from Tinder to Candy Crush-give your stuff away to the many and then soak a smaller group of devotees. And he's cashing in big-time on lucrative festival gigs and arena dates, as well as deals with brands like Apple and Kit Kat. He generates enough spins to make several million dollars that way. The 24-year-old has never sold a physical album or signed a record deal in his life he has only freely distributed his work via streaming services. The model of making music available cheaply in order to cash in on touring and endorsements has been taken to its logical conclusion by Chance the Rapper (No. 'They're delivering an ongoing, engaged dialogue with their fan base.' 'The reason the Weeknds of the world and the Drakes of the world are exploding is a combination of a global audience that's consuming them freely at a young age they just keep dropping music,' Live Nation chief Michael Rapino says. Watch On Forbes: The World's Highest-Paid Entertainers 2017 'It's not really coming in until you hit the stage.' 'We live in a world where artists don't really make the money off the music like we did in the Golden Age,' says the Weeknd, 27. 6, $92 million) have clocked a combined 17.5 billion streams-and that creates other kinds of monetization, including touring revenue. 4 on our list at $94 million) and The Weeknd (No. As digital downloads and physical sales plummet, streaming is increasing overall music consumption-since their Apple appearances, Drake (No. The Weeknd knows as well as anyone that streaming isn't the future of music-it's the present. The latter stunned the crowd with the first-ever live performance of his new single 'I Can't Feel My Face,' which premiered on Apple Music and has generated more than 1.5 billion spins across all streaming platforms. In his place was a pair of young musicians who walk the line between hip-hop, pop and R&B: Drake and the Weeknd. Steve Jobs would have been the logical choice to headline the launch of Apple's eponymous streaming service, but by the time the tech giant rolled out Apple Music two years ago, he was busy putting dents into faraway universes.

per stop on his Starboy: Legend of the Fall World Tour. Ready for the Weeknd: Boosted by the ubiquity of his music, he's now grossing north of $1.1 million.

I feel it coming the weeknd stream