Which Music Artists Make Most Money?

With Pop stars and Rock stars popping up all over the place it is difficult to gauge who is making money and who isn’t. Going by YouTube’s count, Justin Bieber should be the greatest artist of all time. The music video to his track “Baby” surpassed all to become the most watched music video of all time on YouTube. To date, over 246 million views have been racked up by the video which means that Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” drops to number two. However this does not prove that Bieber is the top earning artist in the world.

That honor goes to the perennial Irish rockers U2. Bono and the boys reportedly made $130 million thanks to the world tour. According to Forbes.com this figure comprises the tickets sales of $10 million at each stop and revenue from merchandising. Rock seems to be the big earner as number two on the list is AC/DC, the Australian heavy metal group. They earned $114 million, also thanks to their world tour. R&B made an appearance in third place, with Beyoncé raking in $87 million. On the rest of the list, “The Boss” proved that he can still command the crowds, which meant that Springsteen placed fourth in the rankings with $70 million. With all her shenanigans, Britney Spears is still loved by most of the world and she rounds off the top five with a nice haul of $64 million.

Shawn Corey Carter, better known as Jay-Z loses out to Spears by a measly $1 million and falls into sixth place. Lady Gaga grabs seventh place with $62 million, which means the Queen of Pop has to take eighth place as Madonna could only bring in $58 million. Kenny Chesney comes in ninth with $50 million and tenth place is a tie between the Black Eyed Peas and Coldplay as each took in $48 million.