The list may surprise you.
Music is a fickle industry to crack into. Even if you do manage to make it past the fiery gates of hell, being the sleepless nights, no pay and an empty bar or club gig, there’s no guarantee you will make the big dollars. For musicians, endorsement deals work in a similar nature to that of the modern athlete. Fashion labels, film studios and just about anyone with a brand name wants a slice.
Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have also changed the music landscape drastically. Gone are the days where artists made top-dollar revenue streams of records and CDs. You don’t still happen to visit a Sanity store, or a Virgin CD megastore do you? Instead we all pay streaming services to listen to an endless music catalogue without paying the artists. Streaming services manage to pay a small slice of a very big pie to artists these days, however it’s no where near the profit margin streaming services haul in from all of us. Fewer than 900 artists worldwide manage to make more than one million dollars from streaming. That’s a stark number for those who make music.
Artists like Drake, The Beatles and other iconic names to this day are streamed over one million times per hour. That’s a major stat that tends to fly under the radar of most. Musicians these days depend on record deals, and their ability to pay a slice of a musician’s bonus up front. We take a look at the top ten highest paid artists in the world. Take a look at the list below.
10. Lil Baby – $11.7 million
​​Streaming: $9.1 million
Sales: $152,000
Publishing: $2.2 million
Touring: $253,000
9. YoungBoy Never Broke Again – $11.9 million
Streaming: $10 million
Sales: $126,000
Publishing: $1.7 million
Touring: $129,000
8. Â The Beatles – $12.9 million
Streaming: $5.1 million
Sales: $5.2 million
Publishing: $2.6 million
7. Queen -Â $13.2 million
Streaming: $5.5 million
Sales: $5.3 million
Publishing: $2.4 million
6. Drake – $14.2 million
Streaming: $11.7 million
Sales: $635,000
Publishing: $1.9 million
5. Billie Eilish – $14.7 million
Streaming: $5.9 million
Sales: $2.1 million
Publishing: $5.7 million
Touring: $1 million
4. Eagles – $16.3 million
Streaming: $2.7 million
Sales: $970,000
Publishing: $1.2 million
Touring: $11.4 million
3. Céline Dion: $17.5 million
Streaming: $290
Sales: $215,000
Publishing: $2,400
Touring: $17 million
2. Post Malone – $23.2 million
Streaming: $8.1 million
Sales: $712,500
Publishing: $2 million
Touring: $12.4 million
- Taylor Swift – $23.8 million
Streaming: $10.6 million
Sales: $10 million
Publishing: $3.2 million
