Shortly after Adele took home the Grammy award for Album of the Year in February, she broke it in half — with the intention of physically sharing it with Beyoncé, the internet concluded — in recognition of the latter's 'Lemonade'.

But Queen Bey won an even more valuable distinction outright: she's this year's highest-paid woman in music, pulling in a whopping $105 million pretax.

'Lemonade' was a hit with both critics and fans, giving Beyoncé her sixth solo No. 1. The ensuing Formation World Tour, much of it falling into our list's scoring period, grossed a quarter of a billion dollars. Then she took time off as she and husband Jay-Z welcomed twins Rumi and Sir this summer.





The Other 9:


2. Adele ($69 Million)

The superstar singer won the Grammy for Album of the Year — and promptly broke it in half to share with Beyonce — but these earnings are all hers.

Despite turning down millions of endorsement deals over the years, the belting Brit still cashes in on the road, grossing seven figures per stop on her first major tour since 2011.




3. Taylor Swift ($44 Million)

Her earnings are down from the peak of her '1989' tour, yet Swift still lands in the top three.

With the release of her new album, 'Reputation', — already the bestselling album of 2017 — which came after the end of our scoring period, look for Swift's total earnings to rise significantly in next year's accounting.




4. Celine Dion ($42 Million)

The legendary songstress resumed a Las Vegas residency last February after going on hiatus in the wake of her husband's death. She has also taken an eight month break to take care of him in 2014.

Dion is now back to playing some 70 gigs per year at Caesar's Palace, where she banked in $27 Million pretax in 2016 alone.




5. Jennifer Lopez ($38 Million)

Jenny has her new show on the block this year, "World of Dance", where she serves as judge and executive producer.

She still makes time for her own performances, raking in a six-figure nightly fee for her Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood, while adding to her bottom line with lucrative endorsement deals with the likes of L'Oreal.




6. Dolly Parton ($37 Million)

The queen of country may be 71-years-old, but she still tours with the rigor of stars half her age, grossing mid-six figures per city across 63 dates during our scoring period.

Thanks to those gigs and the income from her Dollywood theme park, she's also outearning whippersnappers like Rihanna and Katy Perry.




7. Rihanna ($36 Million)

The Barbados native makes the bulk of her bucks on the road, filling up arenas from Atlanta to Zurich this year.

She has also shown off her acting skills by appearing on "Bates Motel", and makes millions more by serving with brands, serving as Puma's creative director and shilling for Samsung. She launched her own cosmetic line this year, Fenty Beauty.




8. Britney Spears ($34 Million)

A decade removed from her public meltdown, the Toxic singer is anything, but aging into a lucrative Las Vegas residency that brings her six-figure nightly fees.

After taking a break to tour Asia this summer, her Piece of Me show is scheduled to wrap up at the end of 2017.




9. Katy Perry ($33 Million)

Though Perry didn't tour during our scoring period, she did release her new album 'Witness' and earned millions from endorsement deals with Cover Girl, Claire's and H&M.

Her upcoming gig on the "American Idol" reboot should pay her double-digit millions annually, and she's also cashing in on a new tour launched this fall.




10. Barbra Streisand ($30 Million)

A huge draw even at age 75, Streisand grossed $46 Million on her 14-show stint last year, adding to a career tour tally in the hundreds of millions.

Streisand is the only act in history to have a #1 album in six consecutive decades.

https://www.forbes.com/si...94d3d04e15

It begs to be asked...

Where's LaToya???

and woman r complainig to today....if these woman can make that kind of money with their talent..pretty much anyone can

luvsexy4all said:

and woman r complainig to today....if these woman can make that kind of money with their talent..pretty much anyone can

well... with 20 years put into it... good looks and songwriters, as welll as financial backing with a PR campaign, and sloganeering, manipulating the market with scandal sheets etc... yeah...

There's little room on top for just anybody. It all takes a lot of work. I know Dolly had the talent well before getting mass fame. Now she makes tons with merchandise and her constant touring. She's respected year round at festivals.

truthfully...not a fan of any of the others... I've heard from several people that Barbara is a giant C word. I think she bitch smacked the hell out of Brolin as well...

but hey... that's their life

2045RadicalMattZ said:

MotownSubdivision said:

2045RadicalMattZ said:

well... with 20 years put into it... good looks and songwriters, as welll as financial backing with a PR campaign, and sloganeering, manipulating the market with scandal sheets etc... yeah...

There's little room on top for just anybody. It all takes a lot of work. I know Dolly had the talent well before getting mass fame. Now she makes tons with merchandise and her constant touring. She's respected year round at festivals.

truthfully...not a fan of any of the others... I've heard from several people that Barbara is a giant C word. I think she bitch smacked the hell out of Brolin as well...

but hey... that's their life

I do remember reading a one-off story about Babs demanding rhat MTVplay her videos back in the 80s and going on a tirade when they refused to do so.

Hey... if it worked before. Can't knock her for breaking and breaching some walls. Just not my thing. She's a pushy one

The funniest thing in this article is the fact that Taylor Swift in One week sold more than any album all year, considering all these so called HUGE acts who draw all this media attention social twitter etc...it all means ZERO for sales. 1.2 million the biggest selling album of the year wow the industry really has nothing to offer anymore.

lastdecember said:

The funniest thing in this article is the fact that Taylor Swift in One week sold more than any album all year, considering all these so called HUGE acts who draw all this media attention social twitter etc...it all means ZERO for sales. 1.2 million the biggest selling album of the year wow the industry really has nothing to offer anymore.

I think it's more that younger people generally don't own a device that requires them to buy something like a CD. Car makers are not really putting a CD player in cars as a default now. You don't have to download stuff for free now, just go to Youtube and watch or listen to almost whatever you want whenever you want. People post music to Youtube that has long been out of print and has never even made it to CD and is unlikely to ever be re-released, especially obscure stuff. The older people who have stereos are not as likely to go out and buy music. Even if they wanted to, there's fewer record stores and Wal-Mart only has a limited selection and they don't stock albums with parential advisory stickers, only the clean versions. Nor do they carry vinyl or cassettes, only CDs. People like my mom don't know how to shop online, she barely knows how to use a computer. The few times she has ordered something on the internet, I did it for her.

lastdecember said:

The funniest thing in this article is the fact that Taylor Swift in One week sold more than any album all year, considering all these so called HUGE acts who draw all this media attention social twitter etc...it all means ZERO for sales. 1.2 million the biggest selling album of the year wow the industry really has nothing to offer anymore.

The young people are buying her albums as her album is ONLY avail to purchase. You can't stream it. Knowing she is a big star now she has the power to do such a thing...which in turns forces parents to buy this album for their kids the traditional way. Teens will buy the album. Adults will buy the album. That's exactly what we see here. She will also sell out tours as usual.

paisleypark4 said:

lastdecember said:

The funniest thing in this article is the fact that Taylor Swift in One week sold more than any album all year, considering all these so called HUGE acts who draw all this media attention social twitter etc...it all means ZERO for sales. 1.2 million the biggest selling album of the year wow the industry really has nothing to offer anymore.

The young people are buying her albums as her album is ONLY avail to purchase. You can't stream it. Knowing she is a big star now she has the power to do such a thing...which in turns forces parents to buy this album for their kids the traditional way. Teens will buy the album. Adults will buy the album. That's exactly what we see here. She will also sell out tours as usual.

The question is why don't other artists do this too?

MotownSubdivision said:

paisleypark4 said:

The young people are buying her albums as her album is ONLY avail to purchase. You can't stream it. Knowing she is a big star now she has the power to do such a thing...which in turns forces parents to buy this album for their kids the traditional way. Teens will buy the album. Adults will buy the album. That's exactly what we see here. She will also sell out tours as usual.

The question is why don't other artists do this too?

cause their audiences are stupid... and probably wouldn't have any way to sync it to their phone/device...

So they'd probably get one elected "GENIUS" who'd transfer it to disk and then upload it to all concerned...

therby cutting sales even MORE

[just negative speculation]

MotownSubdivision said:

The question is why don't other artists do this too?

Taylor's album can be found in department stores like Target & Wal-Mart, where parents & teens are likely to shop at anyway. You can't say that for most artists CDs. Wal-Mart doesn't carry a lot of rap albums because they contain profanity and hip hop is generally the most popular music on the charts. When they do have them, it's the edited clean versions most people don't want. Sometimes Target has exclusive versions of albums with extra songs on it. It's like I've seen Adele's CDs in places like Walgreens & gas stations, where they don't normally sell music.

MickyDolenz said:

^^I don't know anything about all that. The point is that Taylor & Adele sell a lot because their albums are in places where many people shop and can see it. Most people are not going to go to a record store, if they even have one in their town or city. But many do go to department stores. People are more likely to buy something they see in front of them, even if they were not planning to buy it beforehand. That's one reason it's been said not to grocery shop when you're hungry, because you are more likely to buy junk food you don't need. That is also why they place sugary children's cereal on lower sheves where kids can reach it and the ones like Shredded Wheat on higher shelves and have candy at the cash register. The childeren's cereal boxes also have bright colors and cartoon characters like Fred Flintstone & Captain Crunch. It's marketing.

The thing is now no stores really have catalog, with the exception of Barnes And Noble I dont see stores that sell music have any form of catalog, BEST BUY almost does not even carry music anymore which is not a shock since they never were in this to sell music, they would sell anything that sells to get customers in their stores to buy their overpriced tech stuff. But looking recently in a BEST BUY here in NYC i noticed that new releases are generally just over bought and jammed down the shoppers throats. As for Taylor I mean she is really the biggest out there that can sell of her generation no matter what. I mean the streaming thing is silly because a certain amount of streams do count as sales for artists which is stupid IMO. But it was funny late last year when BON JOVI debuted at Number One and sold i think it was 130,000 the first week, 129,000 were physical copies, usually in this day and age for artists it is the other way around but it seems if you are older and been around or having something special and collectable on the CD (bonus tracks etc) people will still go to a store or Amazon.

lastdecember said:

2045RadicalMattZ said:

lastdecember said:

The thing is now no stores really have catalog, with the exception of Barnes And Noble I dont see stores that sell music have any form of catalog, BEST BUY almost does not even carry music anymore which is not a shock since they never were in this to sell music, they would sell anything that sells to get customers in their stores to buy their overpriced tech stuff. But looking recently in a BEST BUY here in NYC i noticed that new releases are generally just over bought and jammed down the shoppers throats. As for Taylor I mean she is really the biggest out there that can sell of her generation no matter what. I mean the streaming thing is silly because a certain amount of streams do count as sales for artists which is stupid IMO. But it was funny late last year when BON JOVI debuted at Number One and sold i think it was 130,000 the first week, 129,000 were physical copies, usually in this day and age for artists it is the other way around but it seems if you are older and been around or having something special and collectable on the CD (bonus tracks etc) people will still go to a store or Amazon.

For the record. I just listened to and downloaded from YouTube ; the QUEEN 40TH ANNIVERSARY NEWS OF THE WORLD cd 2 (*alternate mixes frankensteined from raw sources) because I'm fed up with QPL (QUEEN PRODUCTIONS LIMITED) short changing fans for nearly 2 decades when they have hours and hours of recorded 70's concerts/visual and audio. ....as well as outtakes and demos...but we'll not release it. I couldn't see myself spending $200 for a 4 disc set (vinyl, remixes [only thing interfering] bonus disc from 2011 re releases, and dvd of SHORTENED content from the archives of a guy who had over 80 hours of material ....sheepishly pecked down to a 90 minute "documentary" that's mostly already been broadcast by the bbc. In 2000 i would've been anxious about it. But instead i listened to it instead of purchasing something useless that will collect dust. The point i make us even sometimes catalogue releases are turds. KIDS won't even buy this stuff cause it's not a digital release. Kids are in fact growing up in an era where they pretty much EXPECT someone's labours to create music to be given away for free And people go bitching about Prince wanting higher streaming percentages. .. All the sales records up until 05 should be suspended. ..cause it's simply true that artists will not move that many units anymore. It's all inundated and even those who used to be fringe and cutting edge (druggies etc) are now streaming everything and^or just listening to the DOORS and MARLEY It's a perilous time to be an artist's artist

But this is nothing new with artists and catalogs. Lets not forget QUEEN signed a deal all knowing Freddie was ill, even if the other members did not know, Freddie sure as hell knew, and though I love these guys, they really could have lost the deal, not that they are going to ever have $$ issues this band learned from mistakes they made in the 70's unlike other artists who still have issues, example Billy Joel Toni Braxton etc... Also Everyone artist has this catalog, note to Beatles nuts, they are about 200 hours of ABBEY ROAD studio sessions that are still being held up, so everytime you buy something and hear that is it, that isnt it. ON behalf of QUEEN as far as any material "new" for Freddie and the Band that is over, they used all the sessions from that last year because of his health some tracks had one take at times. As for KIDS what kid is just getting into QUEEN and starting with a $200 box set?? These things are for and always be for the collector, most of the time not even for the loyals they take it a step further. I mean the REM reissues that are happening for AUTOMATIC for the people , and also the ELTON JOHN release where even Elton when on the Stephen Colbert show said "This is the last time ever there is gonna be a compilation, its done". But this whole master, remaster, remaster of a remaster etc...nothing new

lastdecember said: