Photo: BEImages/Matt Baron.
Whoever's feeding the gloomy narrative that the music industry is dead or dying should probably have a word with Taylor Swift. The 24-year-old country superstar has topped Billboard's annual Money Makers list with a mind-boggling $39,699,575.60 in total earnings last year.
To cultivate the list, Billboard takes three factors into account: an artist's physical sales, digital sales, and total tour revenues. While Swift's album Red wasn't the top seller of the year, she did manage to sell nearly 10 million downloads. But, where Swift really cleaned up was the accompanying six-month tour, which took in a staggering $30 million when all was said and done, thanks to nightly sellouts and killer merchandise sales.
Nabbing her spot atop the list might solidify Swift as the biggest pop star in the world. Consider that her competition for the throne, Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé, finished third and sixth respectively. Does this mean Taylor is picking up the tab when she and Lorde go on lunch dates? We sure hope so. Check out the rest of Billboard's list below. (Billboard)
1. Taylor Swift, $39,699,575.60
2. Kenny Chesney, $32,956,240.70
3. Justin Timberlake, $31,463,297.03
4. Bon Jovi, $29,436,801.04
5. The Rolling Stones, $26,225,121.71
6. Beyonce, $24,429,176.86
7. Maroon 5, $22,284,754.07
8. Luke Bryan, $22,142,235.98
9. Pink, $20,072,072.32
10. Fleetwood Mac, $19,123,101.98