Over the weekend, I was reading this Sia interview in Rolling Stone – it’s a great music-insider piece, where Sia describes her process of writing hit songs for artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce and more. I mention it because Sia apparently loves Katy Perry. Sia said it took some time for the two of them to become comfortable with each other’s style, but that once that happened, they get along really well. It reminded me of something that we hear about Katy Perry a lot: people like working with her. Dancers prefer Katy to Taylor Swift. Sia adores her. Producers and songwriters love her style. Her tours make buckets of money. While Katy is a nothingburger, she’s popular within the industry. And despite Taylor Swift’s best efforts to “win” the girl-feud that Swifty herself started, Katy still has a lot of friends.

I bring this up because Katy Perry is Forbes’ 2015 Highest Paid Musician. And she did it all with very little in the way of in-your-face shilling. She was on tour for most of the year, and she was quietly collecting high-paying endorsements and advertising contracts. Which is how Katy Perry made $135 million in one year. And for the second time in a week, a title that was supposed to go to Taylor Swift ended up being snatched by someone else! Taylor was supposed to have the most Grammy nominations AND be the highest paid musician. WAH!

Adele’s 25 sold a record-smashing 3.38 million copies the week after its November 20th release—but even if her launch had fallen within our scoring period, she wouldn’t have been among music’s top earners. Touring is now the industry’s main moneymaker, and perhaps nobody better exemplifies this that this year’s highest-paid musician in the world: Katy Perry.

The Super Bowl halftime star pulled in $135 million over the past year, making her not only the highest-paid musician of the past year, but the top-earning celebrity on the planet after Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. She grossed more than $2 million per city over the course of her Prismatic World Tour, and pads her coffers with other deals from Claire’s, Coty and Covergirl. Perry played 126 shows in our scoring period, the most of any act among the top ten—nine of whom performed in at least 20 concerts over those 12 months. She’s immediately followed in the rankings by two other road warriors: One Direction ($130 million) and Garth Brooks ($90 million).

[From Forbes]

What’s funny is that not only is Katy Perry the #1 celebrity on this list, but Taylor Swift is relegated to the #4 position!! Taylor has been on tour for most of 2015 as well, and Forbes actually notes that Swifty’s tour makes more money per city than Katy’s Prismatic Tour. But… Katy still makes bank because of her endorsements, advertising, etc. Forbes does say that Taylor will probably be the highest-paid musician for 2016, although I think their math might be off. We’ll see how Adele does, you know? And Taylor did get one honor – she and Calvin Harris beat Beyonce and Jay-Z as the highest-earning couple, according to Forbes. Calvin Harris is the highest-earning DJ in the world, actually.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

Katy Perry is the highest-earning musician for 2015, she outearned Taylor Swift

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Katy Perry is the highest-earning musician for 2015, she outearned Taylor Swift

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