Musicians who receive the highest salaries are listed below

Updated on August 29, 2023 11:20 AM by admin

A musician in the full-time profession still has a hard time earning a living, even though it is well known as one of the hardest careers, but only a small percentage of those who try it succeed. As a musician, you have been accustomed to earning an income via live performances for millennia, but with COVID-19 swiping away that source in March of 2020, that is no longer the case.

Pollstar and Nielsen Music and interviews with industry insiders and some of the stars themselves help us determine our rankings by considering revenue from touring, Music, and outside business ventures. Agents, managers, and lawyers' fees are not deducted from our list because we measure pretax earnings.

Paul McCartney

The Beatles dubbed him "the cute Beatles." Well, how can we not call him cute anymore? Sir Paul has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, which makes him one of the richest entertainers on the planet. For someone from Liverpool's working class, that's pretty good. As a solo artist in 2019, he made around $32 million in 2019, and while the pandemic will no doubt harm the earnings from live concerts next year, the proceeds from his back catalog and music publishing holdings should keep him in the black.

Kanye West

Kanye West, rapper, producer, and fashion mogul, is expected to rake in a lot of money during the first quarter of 2021, despite all the drama surrounding the release of his latest album Donda, or perhaps because of it. According to the latest estimates, Ye has already surpassed his one-time collaborator Paul McCartney's net worth, which is estimated to be around $1.8 billion.

Jay Z

His last solo album, 4:44, hit the stores in 2017, but Jay-Z's net worth is estimated to be $1.4 billion, making him the richest hip-hop artist of all time. In conclusion, a household net worth of $440 million is unmatched in the music industry when you put Beyonce's net worth together with his own, which is unbeatable.

Puff Daddy

Since Sean Combs became the head of Bad Boy Records in the mid-1990s, he has made an easy $1 billion due to his affiliation with the label. It is estimated that the net worth of his current business investments, such as Ciroc Vodka and his fashion line, will be around $885 million, and his income will come from both his business and his music assets.

Madonna

Once we saw how much money Madonna has, we were stunned. We knew there were "Material Girl" jokes to make, but they didn't pan out. The singer Madonna has a net worth of about $850 million, making her one of the world's richest singers. In addition to a fashion and skincare line, she ran her record label and parlayed her remarkable chart success on the Billboard Hot 100 into an extensive business career.

Celine Dion

In the aftermath of the pandemic, the Canadian chanteuse was able to squeeze in 23 shows before the show was canceled due to the pandemic. Her income for 2020 was estimated to be $17.5 million, so she received a nice paycheck of $17 million, or 98% of what she earned in 2020. Her addition to her existing $440 million fortune is a nice addition to what she already has.

Rihanna

There has been no shortage of huge hits that the Barbados-born pop star has contributed over the years, including 'Umbrella,' 'Disturbia,' and 'Work,' making him one of the ten richest songwriters of all time. Upon launching Fenty Beauty in 2017, Rihanna became the first woman to become the next billionaire in the music industry, making her the richest female musician in the world as she now owns a successful cosmetics line that has made her net worth up to $1.7 billion.

Elton John

Despite being in the public eye for the past few years, the classic rock legend never shied away from the spotlight and has expanded his profile throughout the years due to projects such as the 2019 biopic Rocketman and his recent collaboration with Dua Lipa. The estimated net worth of the rapper is around $500 million at the moment, a number likely to increase when his next album is released, an album in which he will record duets with young stars such as Nicki Minaj, Young Thug, Miley Cyrus, and Lil Nas X.

Beyonce

There are times when people wonder how Beyonce ended up with Jay-Z. It must have been love as she could not have needed any of his money, but she wanted to be with him. A few estimates claim that Beyoncé's net worth at present is nearly $440 million, a figure which no doubt will increase in the future whenever she embarks on a new tour, appears in a new ad campaign, or gets the chance to speak in a voiceover role for Disney or another big company.

Taylor Swift

According to Billboard, a formidable $23.8 million was earned by TS last year, despite Covid canceling her live shows. To keep up with her growing net worth, we assume that there will be more albums like Folklore and Evermore in the works, as well as continued work to rerecord earlier records like Fearless, which will continue to add to her approximately $550 million net worth this year.

Bob Dylan

As a renowned musician from the 1960s and a pencil mustache enthusiast, Bob Dylan was already making a small fortune from his famous back catalog even before 2020 presented itself. As a result, a whopping $400 million was sold to Universal Music for the rights to most of his 600 or so songs. The current estimate of his net worth is $375 million, meaning he either paid a lot of taxes on the Universal deal or developed an addiction to online shopping during the quarantine.

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton has become a badass to almost everyone. It is said that she wrote Whitney Houston's mega-hit "I Will Always Love You" and cult classic "Jolene" on the same day since she co-founded the legendary "Dollywood" resort. Last year, she generously decided to fund the Moderna vaccine with her reported $350 million net worth.

Drake

Despite Taylor Swift outpacing him by 8 billion streams in 2020, the Canadian rapper remains the streaming king. Listens are one of the reasons he earned $49 million last year; it's a nice addition to the $180 million in real estate investments and pop success he's accumulated throughout his career.

The Rolling Stones

It may seem impossible for the Rolling Stones to stop touring despite the recent death of founding member Charlie Watts, but the band has been virtually unstoppable for the past thirty years. The band earned $5.96 million in 2020, which seems like a disappointment after they made close to $65 million in 2019. Despite that, most of the money came from streaming back catalogs and vinyl reissues rather than playing live shows.

Post Malone

In 2020, he will be considered a big winner, thanks mainly to his early year tour, which allowed him to finish 20 dates before the end of the concert season in April when the industry shut down entirely. A recent report from Billboard revealed that the Syracuse, NY-born singer brought home about $12 million from the tour, plus another $12 million in royalties and sales from his streaming, publishing, and publishing deals. A total of about $50 million is estimated to be his current net worth.

Billie Eilish

As Billie Eilish was promoting her debut album at the time of Covid's release, she was in the middle of her first major tour. Her earnings in 2020 amounted to $14.7 million despite that. She earned most of her money from streaming and publishing, though she performed about $1 million at a few shows. The album's title, "Happier Than Ever," is no coincidence.

The Beatles

Even though two of them are dead, and there hasn't been new Music from the Beatles in half a century, they are still the best revenue-generating machine in music history. The group reaped over $13 million from its anniversary reissues and vinyl reissues last year. This October, a big Let It Be boxed set will arrive, and Peter Jackson's Get Back will be released later that month.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again

He proved within a short period that his name was prophetic. Making No Sense is a hip-hop artist who has built an audience on YouTube over the last five years and made about $10 million through video and audio streams the previous year, along with another $1.8 million through publishing and sales. YoungBoy is well on his way to breaking his record with recent singles like White Teeth garnering over 20 million views.

Lil Baby

Although the Atlanta rapper performed only two concerts in 2020, his hit album My Turn helped him rank high on the top earner charts at year's end. Lil' Baby made $11.7 million from the album, which saw 12 songs enter the Billboard Hot 100. While his net worth is not as impressive as that of older artists like Kanye West and Jay-Z, it's likely to increase as he gets more experience in the industry.

Eminem

A new album titled Music to be Murdered By was released by Detroit superstar Dr. Dre last year. Even though the pandemic prevented him from touring behind it, the album and its "deluxe" version became one of the top 5 digital downloads. Slim Shady's net worth reached approximately $230 million after adding $9.7 million.

Lil Uzi Vert

In 2020, the Philadelphia-born rapper released Eternal Atake, which raked in just over $7 million in streaming numbers despite disappointing physical sales. Lil Uzi earned $9.5 million for the year, including a few hundred thousand dollars for publishing.

BTS

It's hard to believe that the K-Pop boy band has been so successful for so long. It is estimated that BTS will sell almost 1.5 million CDs in 2020 while selling nearly twice as many downloads. As quoted by Billboard, BTS sold three albums in 2020. During the past year, the band generated about $8.9 million in revenue.

Bad Bunny

Despite his future Brad Pitt nemesis status, Latin trap pioneer Bad Bunny is enjoying a great year. The record, YHLQMDLG, became the best-selling Latin album of 2020, bringing in $8.4 million in streaming revenue.

Harry Styles

With the release of Fine Line in 2019 and singles like "Watermelon Sugar" debuting in the top 10, the former One Direction star entered 2020 on a high note. A healthy $5.51 million revenue taken home by Styles during the pandemic shutdown gave him the momentum he needed to get through the shutdown and finish strong.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

He is one of the richest composers on this list and has been called "the most commercially successful composer in history." The composer for Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Phantom of the Opera is the only legitimate British Baron on this list. His estimated net worth of $1.5 billion represents a pretty nice emergency fund, despite the pandemic forcing him to close his seven West End theaters.