Forbes list of the world's highest-paid musicians

The highest-paid musicians^[1][2][3] in the world have been reported annually by Forbes since at least 1987. For measurement, the magazine used pretax earnings—before deducting fees for agents, managers or lawyers.^[4] Most of the lists were estimated within a June-to-June scoring period, except for 1999, 2021, and 2022 when a calendar year period was used instead.^[5][6][7]

U2 became the annual highest-paid musician five times, more than any other act. They were also the highest-paid music group in a record eight different years. Michael Jackson became the first musician to earn over $100 million in a year (1989),^[8] and has become the highest-paid male soloist a record seven times. Dr. Dre currently holds the record for the highest annual earnings for a musician, collecting $620 million in 2014, mainly through the sales of his headphone-manufacturing company, Beats Electronics.^[9]

Madonna is the first woman in music to earn $100 million for a year (2009) and has become the highest-paid female musician a record 11 times. Taylor Swift remains the female musician with the highest annual earnings ever with $185 million in 2019, breaking previous record set by herself in 2016 with $170 million.^[10][11] Although Forbes named Rihanna as the world's richest female musician, she has never topped any annual earnings list. Most of her wealth does not come from her realized income, but from the stock value of her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty.^[12]