If we buy into the Forbes’ “Celebrity 100” (the world's 100 highest-paid celebrities), almost a third are musicians. Rap superstar Kayne West is second behind reality star Kylie Jenner with annual earnings of $170 million – mainly from his Yeezy sneakers’ deal with Adidas – followed by Elton John (14th), Ariana Grande (17th) and the Jonas Brothers (20th). Whereas Forbes compiles all revenue streams, Billboard's “Money Makers List” focuses on music-related revenues. The Rolling Stones rank first with annual earnings of $65 million from touring, recorded music sales, streaming and publishing. Ariana Grande follows with $44.2 million, just ahead of Elton John and the Jonas Brothers with $43.3 million and $40.8 million, respectively.

Billboard's “Money Makers List” highlights that almost all artists with extraordinarily high earnings were on tour in 2019 and that at least three quarters of the music-related revenue derives from the concert business. The two exceptions are Post Malone, who is a music streaming superstar and the British rock band Queen still selling CDs especially with the success of the Academy Award-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. In most cases, touring accounts for more than 90 per cent of total earnings. If we ignore the case of Queen, revenues from recorded music sales are modest compared to touring income. In the case of high-charting Rolling Stones, for example, their earnings from selling CDs and music downloads amounts to just 2.6 per cent of their total income. Their streaming income is only slightly more relevant at 3.1 per cent. Musicians with a younger fanbase, such as Ariana Grande and Post Malone, do earn a considerable income also from music streaming, but they are still a minority.

Superstar theories

The Forbes and Billboard lists do not reflect the economic reality of professional musicians. The rankings represent an extremely small segment of the artistic labour market – the superstar business. According to Rosen (1981: 845), superstars “earn enormous amounts of money and dominate the activities in which they engage”.