JAY-Z, Future, Drake, The Weeknd & More Listed As Billboard’s 50 Highest Paid Musicians
by Staff Editor
Billboard just released their 2018 list of the 50 highest paid musicians to date. Upon those top 50 includes Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, JAY-Z, Future, J. Cole, Drake, Janet Jackson, and Chris Brown.
Ranking in 4th on the list is Bruno Mars who is completely new to the list because of the milestones he’s claimed in 2017. He’s the top-ranking R&B act and the second most played artist on terrestrial radio. Altogether the singer has made $40.7 million since 2017, according to Billboard. Coming in at no. 12 is The Weeknd with $23.3 million altogether from sales, streaming, publishing and touring. The singer jumped almost 30 spots from last years list based on his success in streaming, digital track sales and royalties. Right behind him at no. 13 is Kendrick Lamar at $21.7 million making him the top-earning rapper to date.
JAY-Z came in at no. 18. Unfortunately, Beyoncé wasn’t on this list, which is a surprise. However, JAY raked in 19.8 million and $5.9 million of that money is just from royalties. At no. 27 is Future with $15 million under his belt. The rapper’s compensation for his recording exceeds his earnings from touring, which is rare, according to Billboard. J. Cole was no. 35 on the list with $12.9 million all because of the 2 billion streams he received last year.
Standing in the 37th spot was Drake at $12.1 million, unfortunately the artist dropped on the charts tremendously. He was originally ranked no. 4, but the decrease is said to be because of him not touring. Then we have the legendary Janet Jackson at no. 43 bringing in $11.34 million. Most of her money was made from touring and on-demand streaming. And finally Chris Breezy at no. 46 with $9.8 million. Most of his income is generated from touring and his music being streamed. The singer has a total of 2.4 billion audio and video streams, making that the seventh highest number of streams on the Billboard list.
View the full list of the 50 highest paid artists here.