Which Popstars Get Paid the Most for Live Concerts?

Which Popstars Get Paid the Most for Live Concerts?

The music industry is a notoriously harsh and uneven one. Most musicians and producers barely earn enough to scratch a living, while some giants in the industry become fabulously rich. While managers, label executives, and tech innovators are far more likely to strike big in the music industry than musicians, there are a few pop stars that are paid staggeringly well. Live fees are what keep pop musicians in pocket – especially since online streaming services like Spotify have dominated the market for recorded music. Here are some of the pop icons earning the most money from concerts in 2021:

Rihanna

Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a global icon. The Barbadian has had an immensely coherent and long-lasting career in pop and fashion that naturally is reflected in her booking price. She is paid 1 million dollars minimum at every concert she pays. Rihanna’s concerts are the stuff of pure pop fantasy – massed dancers, multiple costume changes, and unrestrained melodrama are guaranteed.  

Billie Eilish 

The young, outspoken Billie Eilish was one of the first massive pop stars to truly speak for ‘generation Z’. Her music and style are reflective of the hopes and fears of a generation more intertwined with social media and mobile technology than ever before – let down by the emotional paradigms of their parents. Eilish allegedly requires a minimum payment of around 1 million dollars. Not bad for somebody just out of their teens!  

Beyonce

Queen B is one of the biggest pop stars in the world. She is a creative powerhouse responsible for countless massive hits, so it should not come as a surprise that she commands an absolutely vast live guarantee. Beyonce was paid around 5.2 million dollars per night on her ‘Formation’ tour. This number is potentially misleading, however. A great deal of that money will have had to have been distributed to other performers and workers. Beyonce concerts typically receive feverish reviews. Concert tickets are rather scarce due to the rabid nature of her core audience. 

Maroon 5

While you might not expect Maroon 5 to be as expensive to book as some of the other acts on this list, they are actually pretty hot property. Make no mistake, Maroon 5 have a multigenerational audience that doesn’t shrink over time like many of their peers’ have. Perhaps due to canny management or engagement, Maroon 5 have maintained a huge following and an appropriately huge price tag. 

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are a band that can undoubtedly be considered ‘classic’. Their rhythm and blues-influenced rock music exploded in the 1960s, and their popularity has remained mind-boggling. The stones are, amazingly, still touring. The profits on their latest tours are staggering. The recent ‘No Filter’ tour of the United States was a huge financial success – grossing around 11 million dollars per show. How much of this money is actually distributed to the members of the band is unknown, but we can be sure of one thing: they certainly are not broke.