The Highest-Paid Musicians Of 2025
The year’s top artists—including Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and The Weeknd—drummed up a collective $1.9 billion in the past 12 months. And one of them became a billionaire.
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.
How do you top the record-breaking Eras Tour of 2024? How about with the No. 1 album of the following year? Despite being released in October, Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, broke all sorts of sales records for 2025, including the biggest first week sales in music history, surpassing 5.5 million global album-equivalent units and dethroning Adele’s 25. Swift also struck a streaming deal with Disney+ for the rights to the final show of The Eras Tour and a six-episode behind-the-scenes docuseries for which Forbes estimates that she took in about $80 million after fees. All told, Swift’s catalogue of 16 albums, including 4 re-recordings, earned her the No. 2 spot on Spotify’s list of top global artists of 2025—just behind Bad Bunny.
In April, Queen Bey hit the road for the 32-show Cowboy Carter Tour, which brought in revenue of $407.6 million to become the highest-grossing country tour in Billboard Boxscore history and the fastest ever to cross $400 million. In a groundbreaking strategy, Beyoncé opted for a mini-residency format, playing only nine cities and setting a record for the highest single-venue gross ever for a female artist at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. All of that success was enough to make Beyoncé a billionaire this year. She now joins four other musicians with ten-figure fortunes: Swift, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen and, of course, her husband, Jay Z.
The top-earning rapper of 2025, Lamar started his year by headlining the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show in New Orleans and attracting 133.5 million viewers. (He used the occasion to perform his hit diss track “Not Like Us”, aimed at the seventh highest-paid musician of 2025, Drake.) The show reignited enthusiasm for Lamar’s 2024 album GNX, which became the first hip-hop album to sell over 1 million units in the U.S. in 2025. Then, in April, he kicked off the Grand National Tour with co-headliner SZA (No. 20 on the 2025 ranking), which brought in $358.7 million and is now the highest-grossing co-billed tour in history, dethroning Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s 2018 concert tour.
Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour brought the perennially touring British rock band to stadiums across South Korea, India, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UAE this year, playing close to 50 shows and grossing an estimated $375 million. The marathon tour, which started in March 2022, has now sold more tickets than any other in history, according to Billboard, and is coming for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour crown as the highest-grossing of all time, with $1.5 billion in revenue so far.
Colombian pop star Shakira struck gold this year with her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry) World Tour, which became the highest-grossing Latin music tour for a woman with $327.4 million in revenue, according to Billboard. In a touching moment earlier this month, the 48-year-old singer invited her two young sons on stage to perform a rendition of “Acróstico,” a song from her latest album dedicated to them.
Having begun the year touring in Australia and New Zealand, Drake released the collaborative album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U—on Valentine’s Day, of course—with fellow Canadian artist PartyNextDoor, and hit the road again to promote it in July. He played more than 40 shows across two tours in 2025, netting an estimate of about $30 million. He also took home close to $50 million in streaming revenue from his eight-album catalogue, which Forbes estimates is the second-highest-earning catalogue on the list behind Taylor Swift’s.
The 36-year-old Brown started the year by earning his second Grammy Award (his first in 13 years) for 11:11 Deluxe in the Best R&B Album category. In October, he wrapped The Breezy Bowl XX Stadium World Tour, a career-spanning 20th-anniversary celebration, which grossed $285 million in just four months. Forbes estimates that Brown earned close to $60 million from the historic run, with another $13 million coming in royalties from the estimated 5.25 million album equivalent units he sold this year.
The top-earning country act of the year was 29-year-old Zach Bryan, who, in May, signed a deal with Warner Records to sell the publishing rights to his existing catalog and renew his contract valued at $350 million, from which Forbes estimates that he took home about $48 million. Bryan banked more than $20 million more from music sales and the 2025 dates of his Quittin' Time tour, which has grossed $159.6 million since October 2024, according to Pollstar.
Bad Bunny was crowned Spotify’s Global Top Artist for the fourth time this year, with 19.8 billion streams. Forbes estimates those sales filled the King of Latin Trap’s coffers with just shy of $30 million. But the majority of the 31-year-old superstar’s estimated 2025 earnings (about $40 million) come from the more than 30 shows he played this year in his blockbuster residency in his native Puerto Rico, which was aptly named No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (I Don't Want To Leave Here). In addition to a role that arguably stole Happy Gilmore 2 in July, it was announced in September that Bad Bunny will be the halftime performer at Super Bowl LX in February.
Post Malone turned 30 in July, right in the middle of his Big Ass Stadium Tour, which brought in $197.8 million in revenue. He celebrated with a sold-out performance in San Francisco during which a crowd of 65,000 sang Happy Birthday to him. Forbes estimates that Malone took home about $50 million in net profits from the tour.
The 34-year-old “Shape of You” singer finally wrapped his four-year-long $+=÷× Tour in September, which, after earning $875.7 million, is the fourth-highest-grossing tour of all time. Sheeran wasted no time after that, releasing his eighth studio album, Play, that same month, and ended his mathematical symbols era by launching a new one inspired by stereo control symbols. (Pause, Rewind, and Fast Forward are reportedly coming next, followed by—what else?—Stop.) And just as he had finished unpacking from the last tour, Sheeran hit the road again this month for the Loop Tour in support of Play, which he will bring to the United States next June.
Tyler, The Creator had the second-highest-grossing rap tour of the year (behind Kendrick Lamar), bringing in $174.5 million in revenue across nearly 100 shows. In July, he surprised fans with the release of his ninth album, Don't Tap the Glass, just nine months after dropping Chromakopia. Tyler announced the new album three days before its release, selling $5 tickets to a listening party in Los Angeles, and 197,000 album equivalent units, landing him the number 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for the fourth time in his career. By the end of this year, Forbes estimates that the 34-year-old performer will have sold 9.75 million album equivalent units globally across his discography, generating around $25 million in net royalties.
Metallica spent another year on the road, performing in more than 30 cities on their M72 World Tour, which began in 2023 and is scheduled to wrap next year. Forbes estimates that the legendary band earned some $40 million, including merch sales, from the 30 stadium shows. Revenue was boosted by the tour’s “no repeat” gimmick, which featured constant setlist changes.
Lady Gaga’s new studio album, Mayhem, released in March, became her seventh to debut at number 1 on the Billboard 200, and earned her a 14th Grammy for the hit song Die with a Smile with Bruno Mars. This summer, she embarked on The Mayhem Ball, a 15-country world tour, which is scheduled to wrap in April 2026 and which has already grossed more than $100 million from its first North American leg, according to Billboard Boxscore. In May, Gaga held a free promotional show at Copacabana Beach in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, attracting over 2.5 million fans.
The youngest member of this year’s top earners’ club, Billie Eilish, 24, launched her music career when she was just 16 (earning her a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2019). Today, Eilish is taking home eight figures. This November, she wrapped the international leg of her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour after playing some 70 dates and grossing an estimated $190 million over the past 12 months. Eilish also sparked controversy this year, asking a crowd that included Mark Zuckerberg, "If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?” At this pace, Eilish may be asking herself the same question one day.
The American pop-rock band behind hits like “Radioactive” and “Believer” spent 2025 on the road for their Loom World Tour, which wrapped in November and grossed an estimate of over $200 million over the past 12 months, including merch sales. Forbes estimates that the band took home more than $45 million from the tour and another $3 million in music sales.
Across the 30-year-old British pop star’s eight-year career, 2025 was the biggest touring year. Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism Tour took her to Asia, Europe and North America and earned her an estimate of around $40 million along the way, with a two-night residency at Wembley Stadium in London alone grossing close to $20 million.
The American hard rock band took a seven-year hiatus following the 2017 suicide of lead singer Chester Bennington, before returning last year with an all-new album—and a new co-lead singer, 39-year-old Emily Armstrong, the first female member in the band’s 29-year history. Now Linkin Park is back on the road with an estimated $185 million in touring revenue across more than 60 From Zero World Tour dates in support of their new album of the same name.
SZA’s ticket to massive earnings in 2025 was co-headlining The Grand National Tour with No. 5 top earner Kendrick Lamar, from which she took home more than $20 million, according to Forbes estimates. In February, the 36-year-old artist won the Grammy for Best R&B Song for “Saturn,” her fifth career win.
21. Morgan Wallen
The 32-year-old country star from Sneedville, Tennessee, first gained recognition on season six of The Voice and is now the second-highest-earning country act in the world, by Forbes’ count. In May, Wallen released his fourth studio album, I’m The Problem, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 493,000 units sold in its first week—the second biggest debut of the year (behind Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl). Wallen then hit the road in June to support the album, visiting 20 stadiums and earning an estimated $24 million.
The “24K Magic” superstar continued his Las Vegas residency this past year, playing 19 shows at Park MGM for which Forbes estimates he was paid close to $30 million, including profit sharing from merchandise sales. Meanwhile, Mars’ small but mighty three-album music catalogue generated an estimated $28 million in gross royalties.
The 26-year-old former Disney star has been releasing records since 2015, but achieved meteoric success after releasing “Espresso” last summer, her first number-one single on the Billboard Global 200. This March, the petite powerhouse began the international leg of her Short N’ Sweet Tour armed with sparkly bodysuits, platform boots, and pink handcuffs, before returning home for the American encore (It’s Even Sweeter!). In all, Carpenter headlined close to 40 shows in 2025, grossing an average of $1.6 million per date, according to Pollstar. In August, she released her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend, earning her criticism for posing on her knees beside a man on its cover—and an estimated $15 million in annual music sales.
The legendary Italian tenor commanded sky-high ticket prices this year, netting more than $20 million from 50 arena shows across Europe, South America, Africa, and the United States, according to Forbes’ estimates. He is the only classical musician to make the Forbes list of top musical earners.
English heavy metal gods Iron Maiden spent 2025 celebrating the band’s 50th anniversary with the launch of the massive Run For Your Lives World Tour, grossing an estimated $150 million over more than 70 dates. They also headlined several major festivals, including Trondheim Rocks in Norway and Eurockéennes in France.
Forbes’ highest-paid musicians ranking is based on earnings (before taxes) from December 31, 2024, to December 31, 2025 (projected). All costs, including the percentage retained by labels and publishers, and fees paid to agents, attorneys, and managers, have been deducted. The ranking only considers income generated through each artist’s or group’s activities as a musician, meaning no outside business ventures were included. Calculations were made using touring data from Pollstar, music sales data measured by Luminate and interviews with industry experts and insiders.
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