What The Billboard Top Money Makers Chart Tells Us About Today’s Music Business

It’s always interesting to read an estimation of what top music artists earn, but any such chart is just that – an estimation. That being said, people with knowledge of typical income streams and label and publishing deals can make a reasonable guess of what an artist actually earns from year to year. Is that guess off by any amount? Probably, but we’ll never know for sure. That said, Billboard does a pretty good job of determining what a superstar music artist netted during any given time period.

This year’s chart takes into account things like the average label deal, management’s cut, the average blended royalty rate from both streaming and video views, producer’s fees, and even average co-publishing deals. A guesstimate – yes, but a pretty educated one from the looks of things.

Click here to read more from Forbes.