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Forbes releases its list of the top earners in music for the 2010s

The people over at Forbes love to track how much money celebrities make. Their latest list has to do with the top music earners of the past decade. All figures in USD.

1. Dr. Dre, $950 million

Yes, he hasn’t released an album since 2015 and hasn’t toured for nearly twenty years. Hell, he hasn’t produced any new music since helped Eminem with “Crack in a Bottle” in 2009. But because he was a co-owner of Beats (he had 20%), which sold to Apple for $3 billion in 2014, he raked in the dosh.

2. Taylor Swift, $825 million

Big albums, big tours, big endorsement deals.

3. Beyonce, $685 million

Ditto. A lot of her extra cash came from deals with Adidas and AT&T.

4. U2, $675 million

Tours, tours, tours.

5. Diddy, $605 million

He became hip-hop’s first billionaire in the 2010s.

And interesting aside: Forbes doesn’t include dead performers in their list. If they did, Michael Jackson would have blown everyone away with earnings of $2.37 billion in the decade.

Need more? Here’s Forbes’ list of the top-earning celebrities of 2019.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39372 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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