Billboard Magazine recently released their list top of earning artists of 2011 in the US… and you might be surprised by this top 40.
Considering touring earns artists a lot more coin these days than physical album sales, those who had scheduled tours obviously fared better.
As Tonedeaf Magazine explains,
Billboard used a variety of sources to calculate artist earnings including touring, recorded-music sales, publishing royalties and payments from an array of digital services.
Their calculations were based on each artist's net earnings in the United States, not gross revenue.
With that in mind, here’s the list of artists that had their pockets full of greenbacks last year:
1. Taylor Swift - $35,719,902
2. U2 - $32,116,315
3. Kenny Chesney - $29,837,103
4. Lady Gaga - $25,353,039
5. Lil Wayne - $23,178,722
6. Sade - $16,382,809
7. Bon Jovi - $15,835,856
8. Celine Dion - $14,261,515
9. Jason Aldean - $13,409,011
10. Adele - $13,081,909
11. Glee Cast - $12,587,771
12. Journey - $12,313,822
13. Elton John - $11,973,990
14. Katy Perry - $11,969,426
15. Toby Keith - $10,413,127
16. Britney Spears - $10,090,973
17. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - $10,017,031
18. Rascal Flatts - $9,639,270
19. Tim McGraw - $9,335,258
20. Michael Buble - $9,027,177
21. Brad Paisley - $8,602,374
22. Rihanna - $7,660,833
23. Enrique Iglesias - $7,448,670
24. The Beatles - $6,743,863
25. Paul McCartney - $6,726,519
26. Lady Antebellum - $6,676,450
27. Keith Urban - $6,579,695
28. Zac Brown Band - $6,481,564
29. Rod Stewart - $6,388,756
30. Usher - $6,292,586
31. Foo Fighters - $6,013,257
32. Rush - $5,819,304
33. Backstreet Boys - $5,712,050
34. Sugarland - $5,632,406
35. Justin Bieber - $5,523,459
36. New Kids On The Block - $5,519,805
37. Steely Dan - $5,389,509
38. Motley Crue - $5,376,272
39. Kanye West - $5,363,661
40. Linkin Park - $5,190,655
Are you surprised?