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# Catalog dealmakers top 2021’s 10 highest paid musicians list
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/catalog-dealmakers-top-2021s-10-highest-paid-musicians-list/
- Published: 2022-01-14T18:59:22.000Z
- Updated: 2022-01-14T18:59:24.000Z
- Description: Zack O’Malley Greenburg and Rolling Stone have shared the former Forbes editor’s respected annual list of the highest paid musicians of 2021. White males dominated the list in a year when. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2022/01/catalog-dealmakers-top-2021s-10-highest-paid-musician
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Live & Ticketing, Music Business, Songwriting & Music Publishing, music, music industry, musician, musicians, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 09:48

Zack O’Malley Greenburg and Rolling Stone have shared the former Forbes editor’s respected annual list of the highest paid musicians of 2021.

White males dominated the list in a year when touring revenue was mostly non-existent and music catalog sales dominated. Thanks to those catalog deals, the 10 highest-paid musicians earned a combined $2.3 billion, more than double that of the years just before Covid-19.

#1 on the list, Bruce Springsteen also earned millions from his Broadway run but even he was propelled to the top by the $550 million sale of his catalog to Sony. In the Top 10 only three – Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Taylor Swift – made the list without catalog sales.

Why is this catalog income boom happening now?

“There are a lot of different reasons,” Josh Gruss, chief of Round Hill Music which has spent $1.3 billion buying catalogs told [O’Malley Greenburg](https://zogblog.substack.com/p/the-worlds-highest-paid-musicians). “At the end of the day, music is something that people need in their lives … the way \[artists\] get paid is a lot more like a utility than it was before streaming, when it was just a one-time purchase.”

**Here is this years Top 10 via [Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/highest-paid-musicians-2021-bruce-springsteen-jay-z-taylor-swift-1281654/taylor-swift-80-million-1282542/?ref=hypebot.com)**

1\. Bruce Springsteen: $550 million  
2\. Jay-Z: $470 million  
3\. Paul Simon: $260 million  
4\. Kanye West: $250 million  
5\. Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic): $200 million  
6\. Red Hot Chili Peppers: $145 million  
7\. Lindsey Buckingham: $100 million  
8\. Motley Crue: $95 million  
9\. Blake Shelton: $83 million  
10\. Taylor Swift: $80 million

O’Malley Greenburg now covers the music business on Substack. You can find his work including the highest earners 11-15[ here](http://zogblog.com/?ref=hypebot.com).

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**Bruce Houghton* is Founder and Editor of [Hypebot](https://www.hypebot.com/) and [MusicThinkTank](http://www.musicthinktank.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and serves as a Senior Advisor to [Bandsintown](https://www.bandsintown.com/?ref=hypebot.com) which acquired both publications in 2019\. He is the Founder and President of the[ Skyline Artists Agency](https://skylineonline.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and a professor for the [Berklee College Of Music](https://online.berklee.edu/courses/touring-101?ref=hypebot.com).*