‘Forbes’ Names Madonna Highest-Paid Musician

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Concerts / Tours, The Charts, Alternative, Country, Hip-Hop & Rap, Pop, R&B / Soul, Rock,

Madonna has topped Forbes' list of highest-paid musicians.

The 55-year-old singer is still the queen of pop according to the magazine, earning $125 million from June 2012 to May 2013 thanks to her sell-out MDMA Tour, miles ahead of her nearest rival Lady Gaga, who raked in $80 million. Rockers Bon Jovi and country singer Toby Keith were next, with Coldplay coming in fifth place.

Despite lackluster sales of her latest album, Madonna made her fortune from fans paying $100 a ticket to see her tour - which grossed $305 million - as well as from merchandise sales, a clothing line, fragrance and investments in companies like Vita Coco. This comes as little surprise, since Madonna had already been crowned the world's highest-earning celebrity by Forbes in August, with filmmaker Steven Spielberg, author E.L. James, radio personality Howard Stern and X Factor boss Simon Cowell rounding out the top five.

However, the magazine estimates Lady Gaga could easily top the highest-paid musicians list next year because her current earnings were affected by her hip injury, which forced her to cut her Born This Way Ball tour short. Had she completed the tour, she could potentially have made $200 million.

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Britney Spears Is the Highest Paid Woman in Music

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Concerts / Tours, Pop,

Britney Spears was the top earning woman in music this year.

The X Factor judge - who neither released a new album or went on tour in 2012 - raked in an estimated $58 million in just 12 months, according to Forbes magazine.

Most of the 30-year-old popstar's profits - which are just slightly less than the $64 million she earned in 2010 - came from her comeback Femme Fatale tour that grossed $68.7 million worldwide, followed by her Femme Fatale album, in addition to her popular fragrance line with Elizabeth Arden and her endorsement deals.

Music attorney Lori Landew, who helped Britney negotiate her first record deal as a teenager, attempted to explain her huge success despite a few rough years, saying, "Britney has an electricity that connects with audiences on screen and off, and it is that intangible quality that always seems to leave her fans, old and new, breathless."

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Dr. Dre Named Hip-Hop’s Highest Earner

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gossip, Industry News, Hip-Hop & Rap,

Dr. Dre has been named hip hop's highest earner.

The rap mogul may still not have released his long-awaited Detox, album but he made an estimated $110 million last year, largely thanks to his Beats by Dr. Dre headphone collection, which saw him earn $100 million when HTC bought a 51 per cent stake in the company for $300 million.

P. Diddy was ranked second on the list with $45 million, with a huge percentage of his income coming from his share of profits for Diageo's Ciroc vodka, while third-placed Jay-Z brought in more than half of his $38 million through business deals including ownership stakes in cosmetics company Carol's Daughter, the Brooklyn Nets and a joint venture with Duracell.

Former Def Jam President Kevin Liles - who now manages a number of hip-hop artists - says it is typical for his acts to make a lot of their money from endorsements:

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Madonna Set for Huge Sales Drop

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: The Charts, Pop,

Madonna's latest album is set to have the biggest second week sales drop in chart history.

The 53-year-old singer's new record MDNA debuted at the top of the US album charts last week after achieving sales of 359,000. However, according to Forbes, in its second week of release, sales fell to approximately 46,000, making it a record-breaking 88 per cent fewer copies sold.

Reports say Madonna's first-week sales were inflated by CDs that were bundled with the purchase of concert tickets for her upcoming tour. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 185,000 copies of MDNA were sold as part of the ticket package deal, meaning that only 179,000 were individual album sales. Without these ticket package sales, MDNA would have placed at Number two on the charts behind Lionel Richie's Tuskegee, which achieved 199,000 copies that week.

Forbes' Roger Friedman believes Lionel was robbed of the number one position: "That promotion artificially inflated Madonna's numbers, putting her first before Lionel Richie and his Tuskegee album. I do think that all the people involved in the Madonna ticket-CD deal should apologize to Richie for denying him his rightful place at number one."

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Beyonce and Jay-Z: Hollywood’s Biggest Money Makers

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gossip, Hip-Hop & Rap, R&B / Soul,

Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z have topped a poll of Hollywood’s highest-earning couples compiled by Forbes.com, with combined earnings of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009.

The singer and her hip-hop mogul husband amassed the massive sum through their music, movies, fragrances and endorsement deals with brands including Budweiser and American Express.

Their earnings were almost double that of runners-up Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, whose $69 million was largely based on Harrison’s $65 million Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull paycheck. (That amount still put them $14 million above third-placed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.)

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