Lady Gaga earned more than Taylor Swift and Katy Perry combined

[Miguel]

Forbes

The Top-Earning Women in Music

(Alicia) Keys did plenty of business last year—$10 million in earnings, by our estimates—placing her among the ten highest-earning women in music. Yet she finished far behind this year’s Cash Queen.

That title belongs to Lady Gaga, who led the pack with a staggering $90 million total boosted by strong album sales, endorsements and an extremely lucrative world tour. Gaga’s total was more than the combined earnings of No. 2 Taylor Swift ($45 million) and No. 3 Katy Perry ($44 million), both of whom also benefitted from heavy touring and popular albums.

...Among the top ten earners, there were both newcomers and veterans. Soul sensation Adele pulled in $18 million—a number that only captures a few months of sales for her breakout album 21, making her a likely candidate to return to the top ten next year. Celine Dion may not be quite as popular as her British counterpart, but she banked $19 million on the strength of a wildly popular run in Las Vegas, where her nightly gross ticket sales exceeded $2.3 million.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleyg...icia-keys/

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Related:

The 10 Top-Earning American Idols

1. Carrie Underwood ($20 million)

Buoyed by 83 concert dates in 12 months, the Season Four winner made as much as the rest of the top five Idol earners combined.

2. Daughtry ($6 million, tie)
3. Adam Lambert ($6 million, tie)
4. Fantasia Barrino ($4 million)
5. Jordin Sparks ($3 million)
6. Kelly Clarkson ($2.5 million)
7. Jennifer Hudson ($2 million)
8. Kellie Pickler ($1.8 million)
9. Clay Aiken ($1.5 million)
10. Katharine McPhee ($1 million, tie)
10. David Archuleta ($1 million, tie)
10. David Cook ($1 million, tie)

These numbers are based on estimated pretax income earned from May 2010 to May 2011, before subtracting agent and manager fees.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleyg...can-idols/

[buzzenator]

I can't help but imagine Haley somewhere on that list within the next couple of years. Obviously Scotty will be there too...Haley should be in the 5 M+ category if things track as we hope they will.

[Miguel]

The big money comes from touring. To get there she needs a hit single that gets airplay (maybe two).

For the AI tour, they paid the Idols $50K each. So...$550,000 total.

From 47 shows with an average venue size of 8,100 the tour grossed $22,002,464

$22,002,464 - $550K = $21,452,464

Yeah, they probably made money after expenses.

[buzzenator]

The big money comes from touring. To get there she needs a hit single that gets airplay (maybe two).

For the AI tour, they paid the Idols $50K each. So...$550,000 total.

From 47 shows with an average venue size of 8,100 the tour grossed $22,002,464

$22,002,464 - $550K = $21,452,464

Yeah, they probably made money after expenses.

TMZ stated $1000/show per contestant...so it cost $11,000 per show for the singers. Idol taking care of their own ...so Haley earned $100 per segment she was in (she performed in 10 numbers)...but they did get $50 for spending money on non-concert days. Greed is good...and now it's legal

http://www.tmz.com/2011/05/21/idol-final...uyMc1ZkhPk