Fifteen years ago Dr. Dre wondered aloud
whether people had forgotten about him. If
there was a question then, it has certainly
dissipated throughout the next steps of a
career filled with highlights—most recently
the sale of Beats, the company he cofounded,
to Apple AAPL -0.58% for $3 billion.
Dr. Dre took home $620 million this year
before taxes, thanks largely to that deal,
making him the world’s top-earning musician of
2014. More remarkably, that number also marks
the largest single-year haul of any musician,
ever.
“It’s safe to say headphones is a good
business,” said DJ Khaled, one of hip-hop’s top
earners.
Dr. Dre’s payday gives him the widest margin in
history between the first and second spots on
our top-earning musicians list—half a billion
dollars separate him from the No. 2 earner,
Beyoncé, who pulled in $115 million. Her most
lucrative year yet comes courtesy of her Mrs.
Carter Show tour, a surprise album and
endorsements with the likes of Pepsi and H&M .
Only one other act reached the nine-figure
mark: The Eagles , who earned $100 million on
the strength of their History Of The Eagles
tour. Bon Jovi ranks fourth with $82 million and
Bruce Springsteen rounds out the top five
with $81 million; both Jersey-born rockers
grossed millions per night on successful arena
tours. Those three acts also benefit from
staging that’s relatively simple, and therefore
cheap, compared to some big pop acts.
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