Forbes Reveal The Top 10 Highest-Paid Musicians Of 2025

As the music industry wrapped up 2025 on 31 December, Forbes unveiled its year-end list of the highest-paid musicians, showcasing a combined pre-tax income nearing $1.9 billion USD for the elite performers. 

This impressive total highlighted the sector's vigorous expansion, fuelled by a boom in concert tours, unwavering streaming supremacy, and astute catalogue investments. 

Live events stood out as the biggest revenue generator, with numerous artists setting new benchmarks through creative approaches like expansive stadium runs and focused residencies, whilst streaming payouts and record sales offered dependable support for those boasting timeless repertoires.

The rankings displayed notable diversity, with eight female artists among the top earners overall and a broad spectrum of styles from pop and hip-hop to R&B, country, Latin, and rock. Clever commercial tactics, including partial catalogue transactions that maintained artistic autonomy, significantly boosted artists wealth, demonstrating how performers are increasingly adopting business-minded strategies. 

These figures not only celebrated creative excellence but also illustrated the worldwide demand for immersive live shows and online listening in a time of economic variability.

Who is the highest-paid musician in the world? As of 2025, The Weeknd is the highest-paid musician in the world.

Commanding the 2025 standings, The Weeknd clinched first place with exact pre-tax earnings of $298 million USD. His remarkable fortune was underpinned by the After Hours Til Dawn Tour, which surpassed $1 billion USD in overall gross and yielded immense returns from international engagements. This was augmented by aggressive sales and streams of his smash record 'Hurry Up Tomorrow'.

The Weeknd’s net worth also skyrocketed massively following a groundbreaking $200 million USD catalogue arrangement with Lyric Capital, enabling the Canadian megastar to keep directional authority over his portfolio.

Pop icon Taylor Swift placed second with $202 million USD (stemming from chart-topping album sales of The Life of a Showgirl, a profitable Disney+ documentary agreement, and catalogue streams).

Meanwhile, Beyoncé secured third with $148 million USD, predominantly from the Cowboy Carter Tour which grossed $407.6 million USD through a novel 32-show mini-residency model, marking it as the highest-grossing country tour in Billboard Boxscore history and the quickest to surpass $400 million USD. 

Queen Bey’s country tour also established a record for the highest single-venue earnings by a female artist at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium. 

In a landmark achievement, these accomplishments propelled Beyoncé to billionaire status in 2025, joining an elite cadre of musicians with ten-figure net worths including Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, and her powerful husband Jay-Z. 

Beyoncé's diversified empire spans music, fashion via Ivy Park, film production, and investments, but the Cowboy Carter era represented a pivotal shift. The album and tour not only redefined her artistic narrative by blending R&B with country influences but also capitalised on cultural momentum, drawing massive crowds and generating ancillary income from merchandise and media tie-ins. 

This billionaire milestone underscores her strategic evolution from performer to mogul, leveraging creative risks like genre experimentation, to unlock unprecedented financial heights, all while maintaining cultural impact and fan devotion in an increasingly fragmented industry.

The central portion of the top ten was intensely competitive, covering ranks 4 through 7 and illustrating diverse genre strengths and revenue tactics. 

22-time Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar locked in fourth with $109 million USD. The Hip-hop icon’s earnings elevated by his starring role in the Super Bowl LIX Halftime show, drawing 133.5 million viewers and propelling his 2025 album GNX to streaming success – along with joint earnings from the Grand National Tour alongside R&B sensation SZA, which amassed $358.7 million USD.

Coldplay and Shakira jointly occupied fifth and sixth, each at $105 million USD. Coldplay's sum derived from prolonged stadium phases of the Music of the Spheres World Tour, whereas Shakira's arose from her extraordinarily triumphant Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. 

Drake maintained seventh with $78 million USD, mainly from relentless high-streaming volumes across his expansive catalogue and concert revenues. The Candian rapper finished 2025 as Spotify’s most streamed rapper. After garnering over 17.6 billion Spotify streams this year, Drake slightly broke the record he set in 2023 for the most streams by a rapper in a single year. 

Finalising the roster were the musicians in spots 8 to 10, who epitomised the benefits of steadfast audience loyalty and niche enterprises. Grammy-winning R&B icon Chris Brown held down eighth with $74 million USD, propelled by the Breezy Bowl XX Stadium World Tour which grossed approximately $300 million USD, as well as persistent royalties.

Country sensation and Grammy winner Zach Bryan came next in ninth at $70 million USD, merging catalogue-linked pacts with extended tour segments and sales. 

And the world’s most-streamed Latin artist of all time, Bad Bunny, sealed the top 10 with $66 million USD, predominantly via outstanding streaming metrics and a committed residency run in Puerto Rico.

• 1. The Weeknd – $298 million

• 2. Taylor Swift – $202 million

• 3. Beyoncé – $148 million

• 4. Kendrick Lamar – $109 million

• 5. Coldplay – $105 million

• 6. Shakira – $105 million

• 7. Drake – $78 million

• 8. Chris Brown – $74 million

• 9. Zach Bryan – $70 million

• 10. Bad Bunny – $66 million