Bruce Springsteen Was the Biggest-Earning Musician of 2021

After selling his masters and publishing catalog for a reported $550 million, Bruce Springsteen was officially confirmed as the biggest earner of 2021.

The report, written by former Forbes editor Zack O’Malley Greenburg, explained how selling valuable music archives heavily skewed the annual chart of artists’ incomes.

Greenburg explained the incentive for artists to sell their rights, especially during a pandemic era: “There’s a range of factors, some of them arcane and overlooked, like tax rates: The sale of a catalog is typically treated as a capital gain, and therefore taxed at a much lower rate than a royalty check. Then there’s the fact that music consumption continues to soar, with global on-demand spins surging 26.3 [percent] year-over-year. That figure got a major boost from back catalog streaming, which spiked 19.3 [percent] this year and accounted for 69.8 [percent] of overall listening. On top of that, low interest rates around the world mean megabuyers like private-equity firm KKR and Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis Songs Fund can afford to borrow cheaply, spurring them to pay higher multiples and write larger checks.”

According to the global top 10 list, all but three artists (Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Jay-Z) made their ranking via rights deals.

The top ten earners were as follows:

10. Taylor Swift, $80 million

9. Blake Shelton, $83 million

8. Mötley Crüe, $95 million

7. Lindsey Buckingham, $100 million

6. Red Hot Chili Peppers, $145 million

5. Ryan Tedder, $200 million

4. Kanye West, $250 million

3. Paul Simon, $260 million

2. Jay-Z, $470 million

1. Bruce Springsteen

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Photo credit: Antonio Scorza / Shutterstock.com