The Highest-Paid Musicians Of 2025

By Martina Di Licosa, Forbes Staff and Matt Craig, Forbes Staff.

IN a year in which Beyoncé became a billionaire, and the other billionaire pop superheroine, Taylor Swift, entered her Engagement Era with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (while launching her The Life of A Showgirl album), it was The Weeknd who ended 2025 on the highest note.

Last week, the 35-year-old pop star announced that he was selling a stake in his existing catalog to Lyric Capital in a deal reported to be worth $1 billion. It is not, however, a traditional catalog sale. The Weeknd will retain a stake in his existing master recordings, covering his entire six-album discography, and have creative control over their usage. Any future recordings are not included. While the majority of the deal is made up of debt, which insiders believe may be convertible to equity, Forbes estimates that he will pocket $200 million after fees.

The Weeknd—whose real name is Abel Tesfaye—also seemed to confirm that this new career milestone means he is closer to retiring his stage name. “It felt like I had nothing else to say. I’ve said everything I can say as this person and now it’s time for me to take the next step,” the Artist Who May Soon Be Formerly Known As The Weeknd explained in an April interview promoting his new film, Hurry Up Tomorrow, a fictionalized version of his life. The movie, which he co-wrote, stars in and produced, is a companion piece to his January album of the same name.

That game- (and possibly name-) changing new contract, the album, and a top-grossing tour helped The Weeknd finish at the top of the Forbes ranking of the highest-paid musicians of 2025. He is one of six artists to rake in nine figures this past year. Four of the remaining five are among the top-grossing touring acts of the year: Beyoncé, Coldplay, Shakira, and Kendrick Lamar. The fifth is Swift, whose The Life of a Showgirl broke sales records and finished the year as the best-selling album of 2025, while a documentary deal with Disney+ allowed her to make even more money from The Eras Tour.

Swift also did the opposite of what most other artists do to get rich—she bought the rights to her music. In May, she put an end to a career-long saga, and repurchased the master recordings to her first six albums in a deal with Shamrock Capital estimated at $360 million. That sale may soon look like a bargain. According to music data provider Luminate, the streaming, digital and physical sales of Swift’s music combined for 14.7 million album equivalent units in 2025, more than twice as many as the second-best-selling artist (Drake with 7.3 million units) and more than four times higher than most artists on the 2025 list.

Eight women and 17 men (including 15 Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni) comprise the 2025 Highest-Earning Musicians list. Together, these 25 stars earned a collective $1.9 billion in 2025, with median earnings of $52 million.

All of which will make for a lot of happy weekends ahead.

The Highest-Paid Musicians of 2025

1. The Weeknd

2025 Earnings: $298 Million

The Weeknd released his sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, in January, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 490,500 album equivalent units sold in its first week. After pre-selling 2026 show tickets in November, his After Hours Til Dawn Tour surpassed $1 billion in gross revenue, making it one of only three tours in history to hit ten figures and becoming the highest-earning tour by a solo male artist. The Weeknd pocketed an estimated $77 million in profits from the more than 40 shows he played in 2025. And his catalog deal with Lyric Capital earlier this month ensured that he ended the year as the highest-paid artist.