Billboard have published their list of the highest paid musicians of 2018 earlier this month, breaking down the estimated revenue splits from sales, streaming, publishing and touring revenue. To promote consistency, the publication largely used U.S. based touring income to align with the other revenue data—which is to say that there could be some noticeable discrepancies. The list appears in the publication’s July 20th issue and is also available to peruse online over at Billboard.com.
While pop stars, evergreen artists and rap stars dominated much of the list some of metal and hard rock’s brightest stars also made the cut. Some highlights in that regard include:
17. Metallica: $19.6 million
Sales: $4.8 million
Streaming: $3.4 million
Publishing: $1.4 million
Touring: $9.9 million
20. Trans-Siberian Orchestra: $18.5 million:
Sales: $308K
Streaming: $333.3K
Publishing: $171.3K
Touring: $17.1 million
22. Def Leppard: $17.6 million
Sales: $577.9K
Streaming: $673.4K
Publishing: $493K
Touring: $15.9 million
23. Foo Fighters: $17 million
Sales: $416.7K
Streaming: $769.5K
Publishing: $1.2 million
Touring: $14.7 million
Billboard note that Metallica owning their master recordings boosted their income considerably. You may recall that the band renegotiated their label deal back in 1994 and as per that agreement, they obtained the rights to their masters back in 2012 and have since been operating under their own Blackened Recordings label. Meanwhile, Metallica also the overall sales revenue chart with their $4.8 million earned—once again thanks to owning their masters.
