Dr. Dre is the Top-Earning Musician of the Decade – Forbes

Taylor Swift, this year’s first, was just second

Dr. Dre, the American rapper who has won millions of hearts has had a really good decade and has got another reason to smile as the New Year approaches. Forbes has released the list of top-earning musicians of the decade, and he acquired the number one spot. It has been reported that he earned USD 950 (approx. 1371 AUD) million and comfortably beat other singing sensations like Taylor Swift who earned USD 825 (approx. 1190 AUD) million and Beyoncé who earned USD 685 (approx. 989 AUD) million.

 

Interestingly, Dr. Dre’s huge earnings were not primarily from music. He released the last album in 2015- Compton and his last No. 1 record for Crack a Bottle by Eminem in 2009. Most of Dr. Dre’s earnings were from his 20% stake in Beats. He benefited when Apple acquired the company for USD 3 (approx. 4.33 AUD) billion in 2014.

The legendary producer-rapper came on top of the list when Forbes created the list by measuring the income of musicians after “looking at touring data from Pollstar, music consumption numbers from Nielsen and interviews with managers, agents and many of the stars themselves.” It must be noted here that the living expenses or taxes aren’t deducted while creating this list. Also, it doesn’t include behind the scenes earners like managers, agents and promoters.

 

Dr. Dre isn’t the only hip-hop star in the list. Diddy and Jay-Z are on No. 5 and 7 respectively. The former earned USD 605 (approx. 873 AUD) million while the latter earned USD 560 (approx. 808 AUD) million. Most of the stars on the list has more money than the list mentions as they have huge investments, own companies and earn spectacularly from music.

In 2020, Dr. Dre’s earnings will increase further as he will work on Jesus is King Part II with Kayne West.

 

Though Dr. Dre is on the top of this list right now, he might not have had the privilege if the Forbes list counted post-mortem earnings. Michael Jackson would have been on the top in that case. His earnings were about USD 2.37 (approx. 3.42 AUD) billion for the last decade.