Forbes have released a list of the top earning musical acts from June 1, 2015, to June 1, 2016. Rock bands like AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Muse, and Foo Fighters were able to crack the list. See some highlights below.
Taylor Swift (No. 1, $170 million)
One Direction (No. 2, $110 million)
Adele (No. 3, $80.5 million)
Madonna (No. 4, $76.5 million)
Rihanna (No. 5, $75 million)
AC/DC (No. 7, $67.5 million)
The Rolling Stones (No. 8, $66.5 million)
Diddy (No. 10, $62 million)
Bruce Springsteen (No. 11, $60.5 million)
Justin Bieber (No. 13, $56 million)
The Weeknd (No. 15, $55 million)
Beyoncé (No. 17, $54 million)
Jay Z (No. 18, $53.5 million)
Muse (No. 20, $49 million)
Foo Fighters (No. 21 $48.5 million)
Dr. Dre (No. 25, $41 million)
“[Taylor Swift] not only delivers with solid music and great live concert performance experiences, but she is also young, poised, beautiful and—so far—relatively non-controversial,” says attorney Lori Landew of Fox Rothschild. “Brands … see her as a safe and reliable spokesperson who is very aware of her brand equity and is strategic about protecting its value.”
“When it comes to the relative earning power of these artists, we have a way to go until we see the gender gap eliminated,” says Landew. As for Taylor Swift? “She appears to be particularly well-suited to handling the pressures that her lifestyle presents. When you put this all together, you have a recipe for enormous success.”
