Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney Among Highest Paid Musicians of the Past Year
Country artists rank high on the list of the highest-paid musicians of the past year.
Of 40 musicians calculated by Billboard, eight are country artists — nine if you include Taylor Swift. While Swift ranks No. 1 as the overall top earner of 2015, Kenny Chesney comes in second place, with Luke Bryan rounding out the Top 10 country earners in the seventh position.
Meanwhile, Shania Twain, Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line rank Top 20, and Brad Paisley and Toby Keith fall in the Top 30 as highest earners. A complete breakdown is below.
Swift brought in $73.5 million in revenue last year thanks to her ever successful 1989 World Tour. Chesney earned $39.8 million last year after taking a hiatus from the road in 2014. The majority of his income, $38.1 million, came from playing for his adoring No Shoes Nation of fans.
Bryan is the only other country artist who breaks the Top 10 earners, according to Billboard. He is ranked in seventh place for his $23.1 million. He also finished sixth among all artists in combined physical and digital sales ($4 million). He is country's No. 1 streaming act and generated 667 million streams in 2015.
Aldean is ranked 11 in earners throughout 2015, bringing in $18.9 million. More than $1.7 million came from sales and streaming revenue. Twain brought in $14.4 million thanks to her last tour, the Rock This Country Tour. Florida Georgia Line are at No. 19 with $11.5 million earned by nearly tripling their touring revenue. They also had 460 million streams, second to Bryan in the country genre.
Church ranks No. 23 with $10.1 million earned last year. A good majority of his salary came from album sales and 2.7 million digital tracks from his catalog. Meanwhile, Paisley earned $6.8 million, having him land at No. 35 on the list, with Keith is at No. 38, just behind Paisley thanks to his Good Times and Pick Up Lines Tour, which earned him $5.5 million.
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