Highest annual earnings for a musician (current year)
Who
Bruce Springsteen
What
590,000,000 US dollar(s)
Where
Not Applicable ()
When

Bruce Springsteen (USA) netted $590 million (£437.3 million) in the calendar year 2021, according to Rolling Stone. In an eye-watering deal announced on 15 December, “The Boss” sold his publishing copyrights and master recordings to Sony Music for about $500 million (£378.1 million) – the most money made from the sale of a solo music catalogue. The balance of his earnings came from his Springsteen on Broadway shows, an eight-part Spotify podcast with Barack Obama entitled Renegades: Born in the USA, and an accompanying book of the same name.


Top 10: 1. Bruce Springsteen - $590 million (£437.3 million) – highest annual earnings for a musician (current year); 2. Jay-Z - $470 million (£348.4 million) – highest annual earnings for a rapper (current year); 3. Paul Simon - $260 million (£192.7 million); 4. Kanye West - $250 million (£185.3 million); 5. Ryan Tedder - $200 million (£148.2 million); 6. Red Hot Chili Peppers - $145 million (£107.5 million) – highest annual earnings for a group (current year); 7. Lindsey Buckingham - $100 million (£74.1 million); 8. Mötley Crüe - $95 million (£70.4 million); 9. Blake Shelton - $83 million (£61.5 million); 10. Taylor Swift - $80 million (£59.3 million) – highest annual earnings for a musician (female, current year).

“In a year with little touring, acts who scored megadeals offstage ended up on top,” wrote Zack O’Malley Greenburg for Rolling Stone. “A booming market for music rights means many earned more than they did pre-pandemic – especially aging rockers.”