Music

Taylor Swift leads Forbes' annual highest-paid musicians list

by Luke Ottenhof

Forbes’ annual list of the world’s highest-paid musicians is always a treat.

We get to ogle the paycheques of 30 of our favourite (or least favourite) artists, and then do some quick math to figure out how much we’ve contributed to them this past year. If you went to see Taylor Swift, she’s pretty grateful. The 26-year old Pennsylvania star racked up $170 according to Forbes, making her the highest-earning musician in this year’s list. And before you jump in with your flaming hot takes about how she doesn’t deserve that money, maybe shut up, because her 1989 North American tour destroyed The Rolling Stones’ 2005 record for highest-grossing North American tour. She’s also the first female musician to pull off that feat, so that’s a double win.

In fact, four of the top five earners this year were women. At first blush, this is pretty great news for gender parity. But of the remaining 25 musicians named, only three more are women, which isn’t a great representation. So, again, if you’re going to say the gender gap in the industry is solved just because T-Swift took the top spot, let me reiterate: shut up.

Check out our gallery of highlights from the list.

Taylor Swift, $170 million
One Direction, $110 million
Adele, $80.5 million
Madonna, $76.5 million
Rihanna, $75 million
Garth Brooks, $70 million
AC/DC, $67.5 million
The Rolling Stones, $66.5 million
Calvin Harris, $63 million
Diddy, $62 million
Bruce Springsteen, $60.5 million
Paul McCartney, $56.5 million
Justin Bieber, $56 million (tie)
Kenny Chesney, $56 million (tie)
U2, $55 million (tie)
The Weeknd, $55 million (tie)
Beyonce, $54 million
Jay-Z, $53.5 million
Luke Bryan, $53 million
Muse, $49 million
Foo Fighters, $48.5 million
Toby Keith, $47.5 million
Bigbang, $44 million
Elton John, $42 million
Katy Perry, $41 million (tie)
Dr. Dre, $41 million (tie)
Jimmy Buffett, $40.5 million
Mumford & Sons, $40 million
Jennifer Lopez, $39.5 million
Drake, $38.5 million