On the 19th of July, 2021, Billboard published its list of The Top Paid Musicians of 2020 with Taylor Swift topping the list.
According to the List, Taylor Swift leads with $23.8 million. Swift takes the number one spot almost entirely on the basis of revenue earned from the recorded masters of her two 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore, which she owns and licenses to Republic for distribution.
While she didn’t tour, Taylor made $10.6M from streaming, $10M from physical sales and $3.2M from publishing. She’s also the No. 1 mover of digital albums (1.06 million), digital tracks (1.09 million) and on-demand audio streams (4.3 billion) for 2020.
Celine Dion followed third on the list with $17.5M, Billie Eilish in fifth place with $14.7M, The Weeknd in eleventh place with $10.4M, Korean Pop Group, BTS was number 19 earning a total of $8.9M and Ariana Grande in No. 23 with total earnings of $7.5M.
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Highest Earning Rappers
Meanwhile, Post Malone was named the top earner in hip-hop music in 2020, while he was only second to Taylor Swift among musicians overall, though not by much.
The rapper, who raked in $23.2 million for the year thanks to his 2019 album Hollywood’s Bleeding, was a mainstay on the charts last year. Posty was fortunate enough to be able to tour for a brief time in 2020 before being forced to stop because of the pandemic.
According to Billboard, he earned $12.4 million from touring and $8.1 million from streaming. He also earned $712,500 in sales and $2 million in publishing.
Drake was the second-highest earner amongst Rappers raking in $14.2 million in total.
Although he didn’t release an album or tour last year, he earned $11.7 million in streaming, $1.9 million in publishing, and $635,000 in sales. He ranked second among rappers and was the No. 6 highest paid musician of the year.
Young Boy Never Broke Again, who, despite his legal difficulties, managed to become the No. 9 highest-paid musician last year with $11.9 million, came in third for rappers.
NBA YoungBoy won $10 million in streaming alone thanks to his devoted and large fan base.
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His tour also made $129,000 before being cut short due to covid restraints. The remainder of his earnings came from sales, which amounted $126,000, and publication, which totalled $1.7 million.
Lil Baby is right behind him, with $11.7 million in earnings for the year, putting him in tenth place among Billboard’s highest-paid musicians.
My Turn, the rapper’s first No. 1 Billboard 200 album, spent weeks at the top of the chart, earning him his first No. 1 in 2020. Streams brought in $9.1 million, publishing brought in $2.2 million, and sales brought in $152,000. Prior to the pandemic, his tour brought in another $253,000.
In addition to the four rappers who reached the top 10, Eminem and DaBaby made the top 20 on Billboard’s list of the 40 highest-paid musicians of the year, with $9.7 million at No. 14 and $9.1 million at No. 17, respectively.
Future, who ranked No. 22 with $8.2 million, Roddy Ricch, who ranked No. 24 with $7.4 million, Rod Wave, who earned $7.37 million (No. 25), Kanye West, who earned $6.3 million (No. 30), and Travis Scott (No. 35), who earned $5.82 million, were among the other rappers that made the list.