Lance Bass Reveals: Only $35 a Day for *NSYNC

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Lance Bass Reveals: Only $35 a Day for *NSYNC.

$35 a day – that's the amount Lance Bass claims to have earned at *NSYNC. The singer is looking back openly at his boy band past in a recent conversation, and the figure he mentions sounds almost absurd for one of the most successful bands of the late '90s.

When you think of *NSYNC, different images likely come to mind: sold-out arenas, hysteria in the US and Europe, number-one albums on a conveyor belt. The band was founded in 1995, according to Page Six, and quickly rose to the top tier of international boy bands. But between stage applause and bank balance, there was apparently a massive gap.

What exactly did Lance Bass say?

As both E! News and Page Six report, Bass has revealed that he and his bandmates are said to have received very little pay during their years at *NSYNC. Specifically, he speaks of around $35 per day – roughly €33. E! News writes that the band members received "just a tiny bit." Page Six goes a step further, quoting Bass with a harsh comparison: "Working for free."

Why is this so surprising?

Because *NSYNC was a mass-market business economically. The band sold millions of records, was a permanent fixture in the charts, and toured the world. For outsiders, it therefore seems contradictory that the five members went home every day with an amount that today barely covers a lunch downtown. Bass picks up on exactly this contradiction with his statement – and he's not the first artist to make such claims publicly.

What's typically behind numbers like these?

The music industry is notorious for the fact that especially at the beginning, little ends up with the artists themselves. Record labels, managers, production costs, lawyers, tour promoters – between a sold album and the singers' bank balance, there are often many parties who share in the profits. Bass's statement fits into a larger pattern that's repeatedly debated in the industry. Without knowing the exact contract details, however, it also remains unclear for *NSYNC how much of that stayed with management and how much actually reached the five singers.

What is Lance Bass doing today?

Bass has long built a second career. E! News describes him as the host of the show "Cocktail Wars." That means he now stands on his own two feet professionally – which makes his current statements about the old pay appear in a somewhat more relaxed light. From the position of an established entertainer, he looks back on a time that was apparently not a big financial deal for him.

What remains of the *NSYNC myth?

The revelation doesn't take anything away from the hype around the band – the music, the tours, and the cult status stand on their own. But it shows how deceptive the image of "rich and famous" can be. *NSYNC started in 1995 and became a global phenomenon, but who really profited in the end, Bass now tells with a clear number: $35 a day and the feeling of working for free.