Forbes magazine recently listed the top five highest paid musicians, and the list is very interesting. Some of the names may really surprise you. Like many lists, the numbers vary depending on what you add. For musicians, do add just concert tickets and CD sales? Below is a list of the highest paid performers including tickets, CD sales, and a host of other endorsement deals.
The Top 5 Highest Paid Musicians:
1. The Police raked in $115 million almost solely from concert ticket sales. $200 million worth of tickets were sold to see the trio perform.
2. Beyoncé Knowles earned $80 million from CDs, concerts, fashion, film, endorsements and publishing deals.
3. Toby Keith earned $48 million last year including concert tours, royalties from writing all his own songs, owning his record label, a lucrative endorsement deal with Ford Motors, and through owning a chain of successful restaurants that are named after him.
4. Justin Timberlake earned $44 million. His latest tour grossed $100 million dollars. Timberlake also has an endorsement deal with Pepsi, a fashion label, a development deal with MTV, owns his own record label, and co-owns two restaurants.
5. Madonna earned $40 million during the past year. Madonna signed a 10 year concert deal worth a reported $120 million ensuring that we will be seeing the Material Girl for years to come. She also earns revenue from touring, CDs, merchandising, DVDs, music-reality film, and other TV projects
The leaders of the music pack change quite substantially when you change how you look at their earnings. The top five highest grossing musical acts are listed below. The gross figure is the money earned mainly from ticket and record sales before expenses are calculated for putting on the shows.
1. The Police – $142.3 million
2. Josh Groban – $104.6 million
3. Kenny Chesney – $96.2 million
4. Justin Timberlake – $95.7 million
5. Miley Cyrus – $87.4 million
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