Taylor Swift has added another award to her pile, one that doesn’t come with a statuette, but signifies her broad appeal to music fans. She was announced as the winner of Billboard magazine’s annual Money Makers ranking of musicians who reaped the biggest paydays during 2013.
Swift’s take is tallied at $39.7 million (Dh145.8 million) in Billboard’s combining of her revenue from music sales, artists’ publishing and streaming royalties, and concert tickets. Swift, Billboard noted, “crushed it on pretty much every level... With merchandising, branding and sponsorships [not factored into her total haul] only upping her stature as a mainstream go-to, Swift has hit that sweet-spot demo that captures revenue from every angle.”
She came in solidly ahead of No. 2 finisher Kenny Chesney, another country act, whose earnings for the year were estimated at just shy of $33 million.
The Money Makers list hints at, but doesn’t fully reflect, musicians’ earnings because it doesn’t factor in paid sponsorships, merchandising and synchronisation royalties they earn from use of recordings in movies, TV shows, advertisements and elsewhere.
Following Swift and Chesney, Justin Timberlake landed third with revenue of $31.5 million, with Bon Jovi close behind at $29.4 million and the Rolling Stones in fifth place at $26.2 million — not bad considering that the Stones only played 15 shows last year.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Beyonce ($24.4 million), Maroon 5 ($22.3 million), Luke Bryan ($22.1 million), Pink ($20.1 million) and Fleetwood Mac ($19.1 million).
The complete Top 40 Money Makers can be found on Billboard’s website.
