The average income of a professional songwriter is $35,000 a year. These celebrities make much, much more than that. Check out where your favorite songwriter stack up on this list, chances are you might be surprised to see how much some of your favorite musicians make...
Sia ($25 million)
This Australian singer, songwriter, producer, director, and multi-instrumentalist has been working behind the scenes for years, but she never seemed to break through the ceiling into elite status. Sia rose to (mainstream) public attention with her work on Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” but she did not choose to stay in the limelight afterward. It seems that Sia likes the Brian Eno angle, she helps out other, bigger musicians, she makes music that she likes on her own, and otherwise keeps to herself.
Beck ($25 million)
Beck hit it big in 1994 when he released his first official single “Loser.” This song was originally a joke that he had between friends, claiming that he can make a song out of absolutely anything, even just speaking nonsense. Despite his admittance of that fact, people still try to dissect Beck’s lyricism for whatever reason. Regardless of the discourse, Beck’s mainstream popularity and his actions as an early adopter of multi-genre style music have earned him a ton of cash over the years, and he’s sitting pretty at a net worth of 25 million bucks.
Ariana Grande ($50 million)
Ariana Grande started as a television star in the Nickelodeon show “Victorious” which, in theory, should have made Victoria Justice much more popular than she is. Grande dipped her toes into music for the first time in 2011 when she got her own tunes features on “Victorious,” and her career has been extremely successful since. Right now, Ariana Grande is the only woman in history to have three albums reach #1 on the Billboard, and she was the first woman since Ke$ha to have a debut album and single to top out the charts.
Paul Simon ($55 million)
You might know him from Simon and Garfunkel, or maybe from his critically acclaimed solo album “Graceland,” Paul Simon is a juggernaut of the music industry and he continues to keep things interesting to this day. After Simon and Garfunkel stopped playing music together, Paul Simon released a self-titled album that had some timeless hits like “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” and “Run That Body Down,” which ended up netting him an absolute load of money.
Michael Bublé ($60 million)
Michael Bublé has a strange success story. He started as a struggling wedding singer until there was one particular wedding where Brian Mulroney, the aid to the former Canadian prime minister, watched him perform. Mulroney was so blown away by the performance that he gave Bublé’s CD to the prime minister himself, who hired Bublé to sing at his daughter’s wedding. Lo and behold, Bublé met his producer, David Foster, at that wedding and the rest is history. Due to his widespread commercial success, Bublé has earned himself roughly $60 million over the course of his short career.
Trent Reznor ($70 million)
Reznor wasn’t always on the fast track for musical success, but the path that brought him here helped him develop a unique sound that drove Nine Inch Nails through the 90s. Reznor showed an interest in playing music when he was 5 years old although he did not pursue music professionally until later in his life. He studied computer science in college and played in synth-driven bands until he eventually got a job at a recording studio and made his own music after hours under the name Nine Inch Nails. Since then, Reznor has published 5 albums and wrote three movie scores, netting him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award in 2010 for his work on The Social Network.
Nicki Minaj ($80 million)
Nicki Minaj has been around longer than you think she’s been. Minaj was born in 1982 in Trinidad and came to NYC when she was just 5 years old. Minaj got discovered by Lil Wayne and released her first mixtape in 2008. She followed up with another in 2009 and was featured in XXL magazine the same year. Since then she has released 4 studio albums, landed second on the Billboard charts twice, and has done dozens of features on some high performing singles. Minaj is one of the few people on this list to have an album go platinum, and she is worth the $80 million she’s made in her career.
Stevie Wonder ($110 million)
Stevie Wonder is worth every single penny he has made in his career. Wonder deeply involved himself in music when he was just a child. He learned how to play the piano, harmonica, and bass at the age of 6 and started writing his own music when he turned 10. Wonder went blind shortly after he was born, so music was his way to create physical space with his perception of the world. Stevie Wonder is considered to be a genius musician, using his enhanced senses of touch and hearing, he has a different relationship with music than any other professional musician out there. Over the course of his long life, which subsequently became his career, Stevie Wonder has netted around $110 million and counting. Additionally, Wonder is extremely philanthropic, he funds two charities that are independently owned by him and has been granted the title of “Messenger of Peace” by the United Nations.
Pete Townshend $(115 million)
The Who was founded in 1964, when Pete Townshend was just 19 years old. As a young man who grew up in a poor neighborhood in London, Townshend chose to play music with his friends instead of partaking in criminal activities like some of his other peers. This avoidance paid off when The Who started gaining some traction in the ’60s for their violent shows, cool attitudes, and clever songwriting. Since then, Townshend has released over a dozen albums, both with The Who and by himself, earning him $115 million throughout the course of his career.
Snoop Dogg ($135 million)
The living king of West Coast rap is Snoop Dogg, and he has the bank account to prove it. Born on the south side of Long Beach, Snoop got involved with the Crips at a young age and spent some time in prison for the possession of cocaine. After he got out, he was immediately signed to Death Row Records and started writing his 1992 classic “Doggystyle.” This album peaked twice at #1 on the Billboard charts since its release, and this success spurred a lifelong career for Snoop Dogg in making music, local politics, a clothing line, and even a successful cooking show and cookbook, earning him a cool $135 million.
Drake ($140 million)
This might be surprising, but Drake’s net worth is surprisingly small due to his philanthropy and enormous lifestyle expenses. Similar to Ariana Grande, Drake started on a show for teens called “Degrassi,” from there he started releasing music that immediately took off. In theory, Drake’s net worth should be around $350 million, but after taxes and expenses, he sits around $150 million. This is because he likes to live lavishly, constantly traveling, purchasing expensive clothing, driving up million dollar bills at hotels and clubs, and donating a ton of money to schools, grocery stores, and communities to build up infrastructure.
Bruno Mars ($150 million)
Even though Bruno Mars is an extremely talented musician and recognizable voice on his own, it wasn’t until he collaborated on Flo Rida’s 2009 Billboard hit “Right Round” that he got some global recognition. Since then, he has had several songs reach the Billboard top 10. It wasn’t until he released 24K Magic in 2012 that he started really showing up on the charts. 24K Magic swept every category it was nominated for at the Grammys and was awarded Album of the Year in 2012 over Kendrick Lamar who was a huge competitor.
Janet Jackson ($175 million)
Janet Jackson was the youngest of the 9 Jackson family siblings. She moved with the family from Gary, Indiana to Encino, California when the Jackson 5 started popping off. Janet followed her brothers and watched closely as they performed on the mainstages, and using the information that she gathered from their careers, she started producing music and performing by herself at the age of 16. After her first record was released, Jackson signed a $50 million contract with Virgin Records (the largest contract signed to a female musician in history at that point) and has since netted significantly more dough. Jackson has done commercials, sang at the Super Bowl, and has released three other wildly successful albums bringing her personal worth to a hefty $175 million price tag.
Brian May ($175 million)
This singer, multi-instrumentalist, electrical engineer, and doctor of astrophysics held down the left side of the stage for Queen from beginning to end. May even built his own guitar, which he calls “The Red Special,” in a way that mimicked the active pickups of a Fender Telecaster, the body of a Stratocaster, and the action of a Gibson SG, which were the most popular guitars on the market in the early 1960s when Queen was formed. Due to his actions in the physics world, and his involvement with Queen, Brian may is roughly worth $175 million.
Bob Dylan ($200 million)
Despite his early preached ideologies about wealth and accessibility during the folk revolution in the ‘60s, Bob Dylan has accrued a significant amount of money over the years. Dylan defied many conventions of the era, constantly changing the design and format of his music, which infuriated a lot of his fans. Over time, Bob Dylan fell into a rhythm, and he started to release music as expected by his fans, skyrocketing him into a high earnings category in the music industry. Due to Dylan’s legacy, he has been able to collect a serious amount of cash during his career, $200 million worth of it to be specific.
Britney Spears ($215 million)
Spears has been through the wringer with public pressure, drug and alcohol addiction, unaddressed mental health issues, and career meltdowns, but she has still managed to make an absolute load of cash along the way. Spears has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her the 8th highest-selling female artist of all time. Hit Me One More Time was Spears’ first studio album, which came out in 1999 and immediately rocketed to the top of the charts. Spears had some hiccups in her career, but for the most part, she’s kept her stream of income pretty consistent over the past 21 years.
Calvin Harris ($220 million)
Calvin Harris has been called “The Scottish James Murphy” in the past, but sources show that harris has actually been much more successful in his ventures than our hometown hero. Calvin Harris started making music at a young age, he would post songs under the name Stouffer on Myspace in the early 2000s, where he was picked up by a producer and signed through Sony, coincidentally. Since the beginning of his career, Harris has earned close to $220 million through successful album releases, but mostly through commercial productions and ad revenue he collected from Apple, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Sol Republic, and Old Navy.
Justin Timberlake ($230 million)
Justin Timberlake isn’t just a well-accomplished musician, he’s an extremely intelligent businessman. Timberlake found his start as a contestant on the show “Star Search” in 1991, from there he was cast to be in the Mickey Mouse Club with some fellow huge names like Britney Spears and Ryan Gosling. Timberlake was only on the show for a year, but when it concluded he took a brief hiatus and started ‘N Sync. Needless to say, his career skyrocketed after that event.
Sting ($243 million)
Born as Gordon Matthew Sumner, Sting gained his name from playing a random bar gig while wearing a black and yellow turtleneck, the singer in the bar band remarked that he looked like a wasp and the nickname stuck ever since. Sting grew up poor, but a serious work ethic brought him to where he is today. Sting joined with The Police in 1977, and when they released their first album it sold 8 million copies. After a long, successful career with The Police, Sting launched a solo career that was arguably just as successful as his time in the band. After 43 long years of playing music, Sting retired this new year, sitting pretty with a $243 million net worth.
Tim Rice ($250 million)
Rice was less involved with the music industry as a whole, but he was incredibly successful in his independent ventures relating to Walt Disney Studios. Rice collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber for a few different Disney productions, writing the lyrics for Aladdin and The Lion King. Rice found most of his success in collecting royalties from these films, an act that is not as profitable now as it used to be. However, his influence was pervasive, seeing as he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1994, and has also been inducted to the songwriter’s hall of fame. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was installed in 2008.
Andrew Lloyd Webber ($1.3 billion)
Webber was a musical prodigy (he’s still alive, by the way) since he was 3 years old. Before he learned to tie his own shoes, Webber was already playing the piano, violin, and french horn on a borderline professional level. By the age of 6, Webber had mastered the violin and was writing his own classical compositions. Tim Rice (world-renowned lyricist and previously featured on this list) contacted him in the early 1960s about producing music together, and the rest is pretty much history.
Webber has created numerous classic pieces, both on his own and for Walt Disney. Webber is currently retired, but he’s putting the $1.3 billion he earned over his career to good use. All of his money will be donated to humanitarian charities when he dies, and he spends his days sitting at his piano and filming himself with his phone for Instagram, giving away master classes on the piano for free.
Max Martin ($260 million)
This extremely prolific Sweedish musician and composer is someone you might not have ever heard of, but you’ve definitely heard his music before. Martin is most famous for producing modern pop acts like The Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Deadmou5, and many more.
Martin also appeared as one of the active members in Ace of Bass, which never saw too much popularity in the states, but sold 6 million albums worldwide. Over the course of Martin’s career, he pocketed roughly $300 million, and with a resume like his, it’s only understandable that he has a fat bank account.
Lady Gaga ($275 million)
Lady Gaga is the amalgamation of everything that was cool, artsy, popular, and fun in the music industry up until this point in time. Emulating the glam aspects of Queen, Elton John, and David Bowie, this New York native has grossed more than $80 million in album sales alone this year.
Lady Gaga is worth roughly $320 million, give or take a few million that she has invested in independent businesses. Gaga was deeply influenced by the theatrical side of music production, which cemented her as an icon and an innovator in the industry, not to mention, she’s a very talented musician.
Nana Mouskouri ($280 million)
Mouskouri is a Greek musician who became so prolific that she became extremely successful overseas. In totality, Mouskouri has sold over 300 million records over the course of her lifelong career, and she’s dipped her toes into five different genres, in 6 different languages.
Due to her multitudes of influences, Mouskouri took in $280 million during her career, which she distributed to communities in Greece when their economy collapsed. Nana Mouskouri might be on the “not as famous” side of the wealthy music industry, but her influence is undeniably important, and you should get to know who she is asap.
Shakira ($300 million)
Shakira sold roughly 125 million albums worldwide over the course of her career. Coincidentally, she didn’t make a ton of money off of album sales, her concerts were what gave her the majority of her income for years. Shakira signed a $300 million deal with LiveNation right when they formed.
She became the poster child for the organization, on top of starting her own charities in Columbia and America to better schooling and living environments for underprivileged children. Shakira is currently working with the Honold foundation, where she is personally bringing clean water and solar lighting to villages in North Africa.
James Hetfield ($300 million)
James Hetfield is the brain behind the most legendary metal band of all time, Metallica. Hetfield met Lars Ulrich in 1980 when they were both 17 years old, three years later Metallica released their first record, titled “Kill ‘Em All.” This was the largest step for metal music in the mainstream that the world has ever seen, and shortly after that, Metallica won 9 Grammys and sold more than 125 albums worldwide, not even including their personally owned bootleg albums.
Metallica is still one of the top 5 highest earning bands of all time, “Enter Sandman” alone earning the band more than $100 million. Their yearly revenue is still higher than any other 4 piece band in America, as well. The group netted $79 million in profit between 2018 and '19 alone.
Justin Bieber ($305 million)
Bieber is still fairly new to the scene, but that doesn’t mean he’s not cleaning up financially. When he was just 15 years old, Bieber was signed to a talent management company directly under Usher, who put him on to the American music scene. In 2010, he released his first single, “Baby,” which earned him $500 thousand in just one year. Since then, his income has been increasing exponentially, topping out at $80 million annually in 2019.
His projected income for 2020 is $100 million, but that is only if he continues to increase his profitability in the next year.
Cher ($305 million)
Cher is a multifaceted talent that dominated the industry in the 1960s-70s. Cher was part of an unforgettable duo with Sonny Bono called “Sonny and Cher,” the team dropped their most popular song in 1965 titled “I Got You, Babe,” and Cher broke off to start her own solo project in the 1970s. Since then, Cher has become a successful actor, entrepreneur, and solo musician and she still holds her place in the Hollywood echelon as a supremely influential individual.
Cher’s legacy will live on in her music now that she’s leaning into a hiatus, which is totally understandable as she approaches her 74th year on Earth.
Taylor Swift ($320 million)
Taylor Swift is the daughter of the owner of a successful venue production company in a small, affluent town in central Pennsylvania. Swift spent her summers vacationing in southern New Jersey until she expressed a talent and interest in singing. Her family immediately uprooted their lives in PA and moved to Nashville, where she was quickly discovered by Scott Borchetta, owner of Big Machine Records.
Since then, Swift has been on a steady increase, tripling her annual salary since she began performing in 2009. She takes home $150 million a year, but her general worth is between $320 million and $400 million due to her investments.
George Strait ($326 million)
George Strait kind of accidentally became one of the most legendary country musicians of all time. While playing in a high school garage band in the 1970s, Strait wrote his first hit single “Unwound.” He played that song at casual gigs that he played for fun with his friends as they prepared to go off to college, but before that happened he was picked up by a local radio station and he was immediately skyrocketed to the top of the charts. Within the course of 10 years after his first single, Strait had three albums hit the top of the country Billboard charts, naming him the country artist of the decade from 1980-1990.
Over the course of his career, Strait has recorded 33 platinum and 13 multi-platinum albums and appeared in numerous films as a cameo. Strait is currently worth $326 million, but that number regularly fluctuates between $300 and $500 million.
Katy Perry ($330 million)
Perry initially hit the scene as a Christian rock musician. Many don’t know this, but Katy Perry’s first album was a self-titled Christian rock ballad record that came out in 2001. It wasn’t until 2007 that Katy Perry switched gears entirely when she released “Ur So Gay” and the charts went crazy. She topped the charts in 2008 when “I Kissed a Girl” dominated the radio and MTV, accompanied a mildly scandalous music video that depicted Perry and several other women in a red room singing the song.
Since then, Perry has seemingly plateaued financially and creatively, but who would complain when you make $25 million a year from the music that you made 10 years ago. Perry is in a good spot, and she’s hanging onto roughly $330 million at the moment.
Bruce Springsteen ($345 million)
Even though Springsteen’s 2019 financial analysis is projected to pull him up to a $500 million net worth, so far he’s valued at $345- 400 million at the moment. The King of New Jersey made a name for himself (and the often forgotten garden state) in 1972 with his breakout album “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” After this release, Springsteen partnered with the E-Street band and the rest is history.
Not only did Springsteen build a remarkable life for himself when he started his musical career, but he also brought millions of dollars worth of revenue to the then failing Asbury Park tourist economy, which spread to the rest of New Jersey. Springsteen just released his 19th studio album, which has been doing extremely well in America and overseas.
Garth Brooks ($350 million)
Garth Brooks is the highest selling American musician of the 20th century (yes, this does include Elvis Presley) and is arguably the best selling American solo artist of all time (his sales were not recorded precisely at the beginning of his career). Brooks is a country and folk guitarist who has dabbled in acting and production.
In addition to that, he has an extensive catalog of Visual art that is available for purchase off of his website, both originals, and prints. Between all of his album earnings and his current earnings from royalties and his artwork, Brooks earns roughly $90 million a year, topping him out at a $350 net worth.
Beyonce ($355 million)
Similar to Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce has not revealed her current financial situation, which we are assuming is going to up her net worth from $355 million to around $500 million. With that being said, Queen B has been dominating the music industry since she first appeared in 2002 on “Crazy in Love” with her husband Jay-Z.
Critics and historians usually lump those two together, but Beyonce’s individual accomplishments were just as impressive as those that she pulled together with her husband. Beyonce is worth at least $355 million on her own, and she takes in roughly $90 million a year. Combined with Jay-Z, the couple is worth close to $1 billion.
Toby Keith ($365 million)
Kieth had a pretty interesting life before he hit the music scene. Originally, he expected to take over his father’s oil refinery business, but when he started playing with some musicians that attended his grandmother’s supper club, he found his true calling. Toby Kieth left high school and played guitar passively, he worked at an oil refinery until his football career started to launch itself. After he washed out of playing football, he started playing shows at local bars in Clinton, Oklahoma.
Somehow, he was discovered rather quickly and now he’s worth exactly $365 million. Kieth has partially accrued his wealth through inheriting and selling his father’s business, but the majority of it came from recording and producing music for himself and others.
Jennifer Lopez ($400 million)
Jennifer Lopez is the picturesque example of “hard work pays off.” Lopez was born and raised in the Bronx with her mother, father, and two sisters. Her parents immigrated to NYC from Puerto Rico, and the Lopez family struggled to stay afloat throughout the early stages of J-Lo’s life. Lopez worked as a background dancer in clubs in the Bron until she got picked up for the television show Fly Girl in 1990. This show didn’t really go anywhere, but she did get noticed by Janet Jackson and was hired as one of her personal dancers.
From there, Lopez took a ton of acting roles and snowballed her career to where it is today. Since then, Lopez started her own clothing line, married and remarried 3 times, had some kids, was a guest judge on American Idol, and has made just a little over $400 million in the process.
Shania Twain ($400 million)
Twain didn’t immediately hit it big, but when she did, the entire world started looking at her. Twain kickstarted her career with a self-titled album in 1993 that defied the conventions of country music at the time. For whatever reason, this album flopped and she was dumped from her record label until 1995 when she released “The Woman in Me” which exploded pretty much immediately and sold 4 million copies in the first year. Since then, Twain has been an idol to pop-country musicians all the way up to the present time.
Kasey Musgraves, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish credit Shania Twain as a huge influence, and her impact push even deeper than just country. In 2017, Shania Twain’s album “Now” reached #1 on the Billboard charts in America and Canada within a week of its release. All of this has led to Twain picking up $400 million in her career, likely with much more profit to come in the future.
Barbra Streisand ($400 million)
Streisand was born in Brooklyn, New York to an affluent family of artists. She originally started singing in late night clubs, with her parent’s permission of course and developed a reputation as a phenomenal parlor singer. She was featured on The Tonight Show in the 1960s and performed in Broadway musicals. It wasn’t until later in Steisand’s career that she decided to dig deeper and write her own music, which immediately blew up and started her on a straight path to the top.
Streisand drew inspiration from her time on Broadway and her time singing in clubs, mashing potential show tunes and club jams to make a series of sonically unique albums that all received critical acclaim. Her most recent concert tour made $119.5 million in the box office and was attended by 425,000 people, and that’s just in America.
Celine Dion ($400 million)
Dion wasn’t destined for greatness until she was picked up by Disney to sing for the title track of the film. After that, Dion became one of the greats. Dion stuck in the film business after her run-in with Disney, and because of that, her 1997 album “Lets Talk About Love” became the most profitable album of the 1990s worldwide. Part of that success was the inclusion of the song “My Heart Will Go On” which was, for those who don’t know, the most memorable song in the movie Titanic.
Throughout her career, Dion has sold more than 200 million records, pumping her projected net worth up to $400 million, but some say she’s worth nearly $800 million because of her international investments.
Rihanna ($400 million)
Rihanna is super-rich and her income is increasing daily. Through music alone, Rihanna has made roughly $65 million annually since 2010 when her tunes started gathering some serious traction. In addition to her music, sponsorships, and general fame money, she also started her own clothing line for intimates, which is now quickly becoming the most profitable intimates brand in America.
Rihanna is famous for her broad view of important social topics, primarily in the inclusion of LGBTQA, POC, and disabled individuals in making clothing products. Rihanna is making $70 million a year in totality because she is extremely philanthropic with the money she makes from her clothing line, but you should expect to see a massive dividend increase in the upcoming years.
Johnny Mathis ($400 million)
Mathis is a multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, singer, songwriter, cookbook writer, and former Olympic level high jumper. Mathis started his career when he was picked out of a crowd of singing individuals in a club by Helen Noga. Coincidentally, Mathis owned the club he was singing in, and all of the clubs that Noga frequented. She put him onto the music scene and the rest is history.
Mathis is less known for his musical accomplishments and more known for his personal investments, totaling over $1billion in dividends annually. Despite his diverse portfolio, Mathis is technically worth $400 million exactly, but that’s without the inclusion of the value of the clubs, brands, products, and companies he owns.
Jon Bon Jovi ($410 million)
Born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. in 1962, Bon Jovi spent the majority of his childhood skipping school and hanging out at his cousin’s recording studio, the PowerStation. After years of learning how to better his chops, Bon Jovi adopted his stage name and started developing a consistent identity for himself.
Most don’t know this, but Bon Jovi’s first paid music gig was to write for a Star Wars-themed Christmas album, which ended up being one of the top-selling albums of the year. Over the course of his long career, Bon Jovi accrued $401 million, in addition to starting two charities and a recording studio of his own. In his older life, Bon Jovi has made more money off of producing records than he did as a professional musician.
Sean Combs (P. Diddy) ($825 million)
According to a 2019 budget report, Combs is worth roughly $885 million, but it is more realistic that he has closer to $825 million to throw around. Combs made a ton of money in the music world, but he has made significantly more in the real estate and production businesses. Combs currently owns Bad Boy Records, Bad Boy Clothing Line, and Sean Combs Worldwide, which is a booking agency for top dollar acts.
Drake, Beyonce, Kanye, Mariah Carey, Wu-Tang, and even Mf Doom have been represented by Sean Combs Worldwide for one reason or the other the course of their careers, which has helped Combs slap together his insane amount of wealth.
Paul McCartney ($1.2 Billion)
McCartney managed to out-earn his counterparts because of his solo work and business ventures. The reason he has made $1.2 billion is that he owned the rights to all of the Beatles’ songs once Ringo disassociated himself from the group and the other two passed away.
Additionally, McCartney started numerous charities to distribute his wealth into, and he is currently driving multiple charities in the US and England for human rights, animal activism, and environmental preservation.
Victoria Beckham ($450 million)
Victoria Beckham, formerly known as Victoria Caroline Adams, shares her wealth with her husband, David Beckham. However, over her years of working as a fashion designer, actor, musician, and charity owner, Victoria Beckham has developed quite an extensive list of various incomes. Beckham came from a very wealthy family and was bullied in school until she saw the movie “Fame.” Beckham asked her parents to remove her from school and start her at an academy for the arts, where she learned stage singing and dance, later translating into the creation of the Spice Girls.
Since the Spice Girls broke up, Beckham struggled to find her own place in a solo career, so she settled on starting her own fashion label and the rest is history. Beckham shares a $450 million worth with her husband, her individual worth is undeterminable because they file their taxes together annually.
Elton John ($500 million)
Elton John is one of the best selling musicians to ever live. Some accredit to his flamboyant appearance, others credit his connection to the royal family of England, but he personally accredits his success in the industry with his innate musical ability that he discovered as a toddler. Elton John started playing piano at the age of 3, he was awarded a scholarship to the London Royal Academy of Music when he was just 11 years old, and he made his first million dollars playing music by the time he was 17.
He turned his solo piano show into something that he could manipulate and excite audiences with quickly by adding Broadway flair to his appearance and sound. Soon enough, Elton John accrued $500 million for his music, and he has played for more famous people than most. Elton John is currently in the top 10 highest-paid musicians of all time, even though he isn’t one of the overall wealthiest.
Jay-Z ($900 million)
Joke’s on you, Jay-Z very well might be the wealthiest musician to ever live, if his properties ever got valued. Although it is recorded that Jay-Z is worth roughly $900 million, he did not claim his properties in his taxes this year, potentially leaving behind another $2.4-40 million worth of dividends that have yet to be upturned.
Jay-Z makes roughly $178-$280 million a year because of his wise property investments when New York was still a deteriorating wasteland with virtually no infrastructure. As New York has increased in value into a modern hub for wealth, so has Jay-Z’s earnings.
Gloria Estefan ($500 million)
Estephan initially worked for the US customs bureau when she was in her early 20s, then she was hired by the CIA to interpret Spanish because she was a translator. Somehow, she used her connections within the government to get linked up with Epic Records, which then skyrocketed her career to have her become one of the highest profiting musicians of all time. Estefan has had 38 #1 hits in her entire career and has appealed equally to an American and Cuban audience since the conception of her musical lineage.
Estefan is worth roughly $500, both from her government jobs and singing. Currently, she is in retirement, but since she retired she has worked on two different novels and published a personal cookbook of American and Cuban crossover recipes. Estefan has not been particularly philanthropic throughout her career, but recently she has started donating to a charity to help rebuild Cuba in its post-political unrest.
Dolly Parton ($500 million)
Dolly Parton didn’t just work 9-5 to get where she is today, in fact, Dolly is still working extremely hard to maintain herself and build her image even further because of her extremely high standard for herself. Dolly is the queen of country, literally, that’s what people call her. She is an incredibly wealthy person, but she gives the majority of her wealth back to her home state of Tennessee. Dolly has raised and donated hundreds of millions of dollars for various charities all over the world, and she makes sure that her money actually goes to the cause that the charity supports, she has a history of retracting donations and taking direct action if she finds out that her donation went into the pocket of the organization owners.
Dolly Parton also owns Dollywood, the 24th most visited theme park in America. Dollywood welcomes roughly 3 million (and counting) individuals a year, and 95% of the profits go back into the school systems in the surrounding neighborhoods. Dolly is worth roughly $500 million, but with her track record, most of that money has gone to people who need it.
Madonna ($590 million)
Madonna never wanted to become a musician, in fact, she has said that she feels that her life work should have been as a visual artist. Even though she denounces her actions as a musician as “not that good” and “underwhelming,” Madonna put away $590- $850 million over the course of the past 40 years of performances. Madonna is the highest-selling female artist in history, in and outside of the music world.
She revolutionized the art-pop movement in NYC in the 60s-70s, which practically created modern music. Without Madonna, there would be no pop stars, there would be no tabloids, or at least they would be very different from what they are nowadays. Madonna’s net worth fluctuates because of her outside investments, without her dividends, she’s worth closer to $1 billion than any other female artist that has ever existed.
John Lennon ($800 Million)
John Lennon was the “host” of the Beatles, he was arguably more popular than the other popular Beatle, Paul McCartney. Unlike Paul, John was shrewd with his wealth, he refused to donate or give back to communities like the rest of the Beatles did, instead, he invested in his own and his wife’s artistic careers.
This all came crashing down when Lennon was assassinated, and all of his wealth was passed onto Yoko Ono, who built charities to distribute the $800 million he hoarded over the course of the 27 years he earned it in.
Michael Jackson ($825 million)
At the peak of his career, Michael Jackson held $825 million in his bank account. However, at the time of his death, Jackson was in the hole about $500 million. This was due to his egregious overspending and multiple estates strewn around America that he promised to sell and rent but never did.
Michael Jackson put himself in a dark place before he passed away, but it is undeniable the impact that he had on the music world when he released multiple, near-flawless albums back to back to back. In fact, the current Copywrite value of Michael Jackson’s songs is close to $800 million, at the moment.
Dr. Dre ($770 million)
Dre hit the scene when there was nobody like him in the public eye. Originally a DJ in Compton’s most famous DJ squad “the Wreckin Cru,” Dre joined NWA with fellow DJ’s Ice Cube and Eazy-E. When NWA released “Straight Outta Compton,” the young men quickly became multi-millionaires. All of the members of NWA ended up investing their wealth responsibly, but Dr. Dre made the most cash (mostly because of Beats by Dre), in addition to being one of the most philanthropic celebrities to ever live.
Dre has donated millions of dollars to housing programs in Compton, in addition to owning and managing hundreds of rental properties for low-income individuals in West LA.
Bing Crosby ($550 Million)
Crosby passed away in 1977, but his impact on the music world was undeniable when he did hit the scene. His singing style was completely different from anything the world had seen in the early 1900s, and he continues to inspire musicians all over the world. Over the course of his career, Bing Crosby made between $50 and $75 million dollars, which in 1930 was an ungodly amount of money, roughly equating to $550-650 in today’s inflated currency.
Over his life, Crosby helped invent recording equipment, and he even started his own record player manufacturing business, which is still the leading record player on the market to this day (don’t listen to Sony, they’re lying to you).
Jimmy Buffett- ($560 million)
Buffett made music for himself when he was growing up. He was born and raised in Pascagoula, Mississippi, he was the youngest of 4 in an extremely poor family. Buffett was gifted a guitar by his school music teacher after he showed proficiency in playing the trombone, tuba, violin, and trumpet at age 10.
Buffett was a natural, and he started writing music to emulate the lifestyle that he wished he could live while trapped in a poor Mississippi town. Fortunately for him, things took off, and over the course of his career, he has pocketed $560 million, which has been redistributed to numerous charities and organizations since.
Mick Jagger ($322 million)
The Rolling Stones was an incredibly profitable band that would have been nothing without Sir Mick Jagger, formerly known as Michael Phillip Jagger. Jagger wrote the majority of the hits for the Rolling Stones and took credit for them, leaving his partner Kieth Richards and the rest of his band in the dust. He started to develop a solo career which was quickly evaporated due to the lack of authenticity or marketability of his music as he grew older. Regardless, Mick Jagger rocked his celebrity status all the way up to the $360 million mark. He still holds onto the former fame that he had when he was rolling those stones with the other guys.
George Harrison ($400 million)
In 2001, Harrison died of complications from lung cancer due to a lifetime of smoking cigarettes. However, during his lifetime, he accrued $400 million from his work with the Beatles and as a solo artist. George Harrison was a founding member and forever guitar and bass player for the most successful band of all time, and although he was not one of the principal songwriters, George Harrison’s impact was seen in songs like “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Here Comes the Sun.” and “Something.” Before Harrison died, he created his own production company and released films under the nake HandMade Films Productions. This company is now defunct, but at its peak, it was worth close to $2 million.
Mariah Carey ($510 million)
Carey has an extremely active resume, but she is considered to be only the second highest-selling female musician of all time. She has more #1 songs than any woman ever, and she has won 5 Grammys, 10 AMA’s, and 15 Billboard music awards over the course of her career. Mariah Carey didn’t originally want to be a singer, in fact, she dreamed of becoming a poet early on in her life. However, it was because of her poetry that she got discovered by a man named Gavin Christopher, who eventually turned Carey onto music, and her career started there. Born and raised in New York, Carey has put away roughly $510 million over her years as a singer, and she’s given most of it back over time as well.
Julio Iglesias ($600 million)
Iglesias is the highest profiting Latin artist to ever live, and he’s still making music to this day. Unlike some of the other contenders on the higher end of this list, Iglesias made his fortune strictly through his drive, creativity, and dedication to music. Iglesias has released over 80 albums during his 60-year long career. Not only has he released music in Spanish, but he has also released Italian and English songs that rival the popularity and timbre of local singers. Iglesias is worth roughly $600 million, and with no external investments, he might just be the highest profiting (strictly) musician to ever walk the Earth.
Bono ($700 million)
Bono started accruing wealth when he helped found U2 while he was in high school in the 1970s. The band was originally called “Feeback,” which was switched to U2 within the same year for the sake of simplicity. Bono isn’t just a wealthy musician, he is a highly accomplished businessman. Bono owns close to $2 billion worth of real estate in Ireland and the US, he owns a private equity firm as well. He has earned roughly $400 million from U2 in his life, and his other investments netted him the other $300 million.
Herb Alpert ($870 million)
Herb Alpert was a concert trumpet player over the course of his life. As a kid, he played in a church band, while also taking lessons from his church band leader, who was a remarkable trumpet player himself. Clearly, this worked out, because when Alpert was drafted to fight in WWII, he was hired to be the bugle player. Long story short, Alpert wrote hundreds of songs and sold millions upon millions of records, capturing $850 million by the time everything ended. Alpert is still living, but he has been in retirement for the past 10 years.