Author Topic: 50 Biggest Moneymakers  (Read 3474 times)

ggw

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50 Biggest Moneymakers
« on: February 11, 2005, 01:26:00 pm »
1. Prince
 $56.5 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD It rained green, not purple, for Prince in 2004. With $90.3 million in ticket sales, he returned to center stage after a decade in the commercial wilderness, scoring the year's second-highest-grossing tour. And thanks to low production costs, his net take was larger than top grosser Madonna's. (It took twenty-four trucks to haul around Madonna's mammoth tour, while Prince's bare-bones show needed only twelve.) Prince took a reported eighty-five percent of the profits from the concerts, which earned an average $910,000 a night -- and he'll command a higher percentage next time.
 ON CD Prince sold 1.9 million copies of 2004's Musicology, but that figure is misleading: In a unique scheme, a ten-dollar CD surcharge built into his ticket prices meant that every concertgoer got a copy of the album, whether they wanted it or not. Nonetheless, free agent Prince strikes only one-album distribution deals with record companies (Columbia, in the case of Musicology), which means he earns more than two dollars per CD.
 Last year's rank: NA
 
 2. Madonna
 $54.9 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD High ticket prices may be agony for fans, but they put Madonna in second place on the list of top-earning musicians. Despite playing only fifty-six concerts in 2004, Madonna hauled in more money on the road than any other artist, charging as much as $300 a seat. She also demanded -- and got -- ninety-five percent of her shows' profits. The hefty prices helped her Re-Invention Tour draw in more than $2 million a night in North America, a profitable figure despite monumental production costs and weak sales in some cities.
 ON CD Touring provided nearly all of Madonna's music-related revenue in 2004: Her most recent album, American Life, sold only 650,000 copies, and she has yet to earn back a $20 million advance on future CD sales from 2002.
 ON THE SIDE Madonna's remarkably successful sideline as an author of children's books is helping her keep that pricey kabbalah water flowing: In total, her four tomes (Yakov and the Seven Thieves and The Adventures of Abdi were published last year) have sold more than 1.5 million copies.
 Last year's rank: NA
 
 3. Metallica
 $43.1 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD The band's Madly in Anger With the World Tour was the fourth-biggest in North America last year.
 ON CD The members of Metallica don't need to lift a finger, or bang a head, to earn million-dollar-plus salaries. Credit goes to a shrewd mid-1990s renegotiation with Elektra Records by the band's management company and consistent sales for catalog albums. Metallica perennials the Black Album and Master of Puppets helped the band sell 1.4 million units from catalog alone in 2004. They earn close to three dollars for each CD -- which might help explain their aversion to file-trading.
 ON THE SIDE Metallica haven't yet eked out a profit from the theatrical and DVD release of their soul-baring documentary, Some Kind of Monster, which they co-own with its directors. But it can't hurt their financial picture that they finally canned the $40,000-a-month therapist seen in the film.
 Last year's rank: 5
 
 4. Elton John
 $42.9 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD John made his debut as a Vegas entertainer in 2004, earning $18 million with an extravagant, David LaChapelle-designed show. He grossed another $91 million outside Vegas.
 ON CD John and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin picked up substantial publishing revenue from airplay and cover songs, including Ray Charles' version of "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word," from 2004's Genius Loves Company.
 Last year's rank: 22
 
 5. Jimmy Buffett
 $36.5 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD Loyal Parrot Heads helped canny businessman Buffett gross almost $29 million in his latest lap around the nation's amphitheaters.
 ON CD His first-ever country album, License to Chill, debuted at Number One (a first for Buffett) and sold an astounding 1.3 million copies. Buffett releases his CDs on his own label, keeping far more profits than most artists do.
 ON THE SIDE His Margaritaville chain of retail stores, nightclubs and restaurants generates an eight-figure income.
 Last year's rank: 17
 
 6. Rod Stewart
 $34.6 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD The Great American Songbook is earning Stewart great American dollars: The rocker turned crooner grossed $37 million with his classics tour, plus $10 million for private gigs.
 ON CD Publishing revenue from past hits amounts to more than $3 million a year, and his third standards album, Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Vol. 3, has sold 1.2 million copies.
 Last year's rank: NA
 
 7. Shania Twain
 $33.2 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD Man, she feels like an ATM machine! Raking in $63 million, Twain had the year's biggest county tour and the third-highest-grossing overall.
 ON CD Twain sold more than 4 million discs, led by her greatest-hits collection.
 Last year's rank: 8
 
 8. Phil Collins
 $33.2 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD The solid success of Collins' farewell outing wasn't exactly against all odds: Charging close to eighty dollars a ticket, he played to more than 300,000 people in North America.
 Last year's rank: NA
 
 9. Linkin Park
 $33.1 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD The tireless sextet embarked on three separate tours in 2004 -- the Projekt Revolution package with Korn and Snoop Dogg, a U.S. solo outing and an overseas jaunt. The total haul: $35 million.
 ON CD Meteora (2003) and last year's Collision Course -- the CD/DVD document of their MTV mash-up collaboration with Jay-Z -- each sold more than 1 million copies. Another CD, Live in Texas, sold another 440,000.
 Last year's rank: NA
 
 10. Simon and Garfunkel
 $31.3 MILLION
 
 ON THE ROAD Last year the reunited duo split a $1 million-per-night guarantee in the U.S. -- but distressed promoters by earning little more than that at most venues. The two had some impressive sellouts overseas, however, including a $4.5 million night in Hyde Park, London.
 ON CD Catalog sales amounted to 500,000 copies last year, and Simon nabbed $4 million in songwriting income.
 Last year's rank: 9
 
 The Rest of The List

vansmack

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2005, 01:59:00 pm »
Are there any odds on U2 being #1 in 2005 or did Vegas take it off the board?
27>34

brennser

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2005, 04:24:00 pm »
I watched most of this last night - friggin hilarious
 
   
Quote
ON THE SIDE Metallica haven't yet eked out a profit from the theatrical and DVD release of their soul-baring documentary, Some Kind of Monster, which they co-own with its directors. But it can't hurt their financial picture that they finally canned the $40,000-a-month therapist seen in the film.

ratioci nation

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2005, 04:26:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by brennser:
  I watched most of this last night - friggin hilarious
yeah I watched it a couple of weeks a go, what a bunch of pussies

ggw

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2005, 02:26:00 pm »
Balding Rockers and Big Money
 By JOHN LELAND
 
 THE universal fantasy about being a rock star, at least the G-rated part, goes something like this: you make wildly popular new music, see your likeness splashed across magazine covers and MTV, and worry occasionally about becoming over the hill. You have great hair.
 
 But according to a new list of the 50 top-earning pop stars published in Rolling Stone, over the hill is the new golden pasture. Half the top 10 headliners are older than 50, and two are over 60. Only one act, Linkin Park, has members under 30.
 
 The annual list, which entails some guesswork, reverses the common perception of pop music. Not only is it not the province of youth; it's also not the province of CD sales, hit songs and smutty videos.
 
 While sexy young stars take their turn strutting on the Billboard charts or MTV - or on the cover of Rolling Stone - the real pop pantheon, it seems, is an older group, no longer producing new hits, but re-enacting songs that are older than many of today's pop idols.
 
 In other words, pop music may seem to be about Gwen Stefani, Ashlee Simpson and Ashanti, but its bottom line is about Celine Dion (No. 21 on the list), Bette Midler (No. 24) and Cher (No. 43).
 
 Consider the singer Usher, 26. He sold the most albums, flashed the hottest abs and caused the most swoons in 2004. But Usher ranked only No. 16 - well below the rumpled Phil Collins, 54, who ranked No. 8, or Jimmy Buffett, 59, who keeps his abs comfortable and safe behind Hawaiian shirts, and who ranked No. 5.
 
 Mr. Collins and Mr. Buffett, like fellow rock plutocrats Elton John, No. 4, Simon and Garfunkel, No. 10, and Sting, No. 15, are all of an age when hair is no longer a statement. It is a losing battle.
 
 This is not the revolution the industry was built to promote.
 
 Even at the top of the list, Prince and Madonna, two 46 year olds, each of whom earned over $50 million in 2004, have long since stopped driving fans into music stores.
 
 "This always comes as a shock to fans," said Joe Levy, a deputy managing editor at Rolling Stone. "The biggest-selling artists aren't the ones who make the most money. The artists learn the hard way that money comes from concert tickets and T-shirts, not selling records. That's the lesson - you build a brand over time, and you can sell the brand even if you can't sell the albums."
 
 This means that, while it is good to be the next big thing, it is better to be a-couple-of-big-things-ago. Though pop music glorifies the young and the new, it actually sells these qualities at a discount.
 
 For the record companies, which rarely share in concert grosses, this formula conveys a simple lesson, said Fred Goodman, author of "The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen,Springsteen and the Head-On Collision of Rock and Commerce."
 
 "It tells you that the record business stinks," Mr. Goodman said. Though record companies still create hit acts, often at great expense, "the consumer money is not in the record marketplace," he said.
 
 If old songs create more profits than new ones, in a business that claims to sell newness as hipness, then the business is at odds with itself.
 
 That may be true for the record companies, but Tom Calderone, executive vice president of music and talent programming for MTV and MTV2, suggested that musicians aren't just creating new songs. They're creating future old songs. That flamboyant mane of today is really a down payment on a profitable bald pate tomorrow. And obsolescence, after all, is in the ear of the ticket buyer.
 
 "In five or six years you're going to see Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order and the Cure getting the high ticket prices," Mr. Calderone said, referring to a generation of bands that is not yet content to rest on its oldies. "So maybe Jimmy Buffett is replaced by the Bauhaus reunion, at $250 a ticket."
 
 He added: "I'll be there for that one."
 
 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/weekinreview/13lela.html

Bags

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2005, 06:46:00 pm »
Don't you think this phenomenon has to do with the age of the crowd and their willingness/ability to pay high prices?  I do....
 
 And I'll be at the expensive Echo show as well, if I can get a good seat.   ;)

jkeisenh

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2005, 10:19:00 am »
i read this subject line quickly and thought it said "biggest monkeymakers"
 
 needless to say, i was quite disappointed by the actual content.

Bombay Chutney

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2005, 12:07:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  "In five or six years you're going to see Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order and the Cure getting the high ticket prices," Mr. Calderone said, referring to a generation of bands that is not yet content to rest on its oldies. "So maybe Jimmy Buffett is replaced by the Bauhaus reunion, at $250 a ticket."
 
haha - I doubt it.  The reason Madonna, Buffet and the others can demand high prices is that they appeal to the masses and can consistently sellout hockey arenas/amphitheaters in a matter of minutes.   Echo is still playing clubs, New Order MIGHT sellout Constitution Hall (if the tickets are cheap enough) and the Cure can't sellout an amphitheater with 8 other bands on the bill for 1/3 of the $250 ticket price he mentions.  Bauhaus already did a reunion - they played clubs and tickets were easy to come by.  Relatively speaking, there's no real demand for these tickets to justify high ticket prices.
 
 Put The Cure in 9:30 and you could get $250.  They'll have to play an awful lot of shows to hit the $33 million mark though.

distance

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2005, 12:14:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by Bombay Chutney:
  the Cure can't sellout an amphitheater with 8 other bands on the bill for 1/3 of the $250 ticket price he mentions.  
the cure sold out some amphitheaters back in 2000.   i refused to go to curiosa because the tickets were ridiculously overpriced.  if i remember the close tickets for merriweather were about the same price after fees as a single day of coachella.  also the sets were shorter for all the bands including the cure.  i think it was a really bad idea.

Bags

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #9 on: February 15, 2005, 12:44:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by distance:
   if i remember the close tickets for merriweather were about the same price after fees as a single day of coachella.
Well, it may have been more than the single day ticket price, but going to Coachella involves a hell of a lot of other costs as well, including travel time and the like -- I figure it's a $600-$900 weekend.  WAY more expensive than Curiosa, even though the lineup rocks (and how long are the sets at Coachella?).
 
 I swear, I do not understand folks complaining about $50 ticket prices for bands they love...

distance

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #10 on: February 15, 2005, 12:58:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by Bags:
  Well, it may have been more than the single day ticket price, but going to Coachella involves a hell of a lot of other costs as well, including travel time and the like -- I figure it's a $600-$900 weekend.  WAY more expensive than Curiosa, even though the lineup rocks (and how long are the sets at Coachella?).
 
 I swear, I do not understand folks complaining about $50 ticket prices for bands they love...
not taking into consideration the travel costs for US to go to coachella.  people that live out there have no more expenses for goign to coachella than we have for going to the 930 club.
 i'm just going on ticket prices, not anything related to how you're getting there, etc.  my coachella trip last year was way more than 600-900$.. but it was incorporated into a 3-week long cross-country trip.
 
 
 i wouldn't complain about a $50 ticket price to see the cure.  i think i paid almost that much after fees to see them before.  however i would NOT pay the $70 to see an abbreviated cure set, consisting mostly of singles and new material and have to watch a couple bands that i don't like (while i would like to see interpol and mogwai on the tour, mogwai's sets were maybe 30 mnutes and interpols were short as well and it doesn't seem  worth it to me).  i've already seen the cure several times and every time they played 2.5+ hours.   why would i want to go to curiosa?  i wanted to see mogwai, so i did.  i caught mogwai on two of their non-curiosa club shows on off nights on the tour in jacksonville and in pittsburgh and they were great.
 i then ended up seeing interpol twice a couple months after the tour.
 
 i'd much rather spend the money to see each of the bands individually than have to deal with crowds of thousands of people, the heat and the sun, $4+ bottles of water, short sets, etc.

ggw

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2006, 02:42:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by vansmack:
  Are there any odds on U2 being #1 in 2005 or did Vegas take it off the board?
Nice call:
 
 Rock's Top Thirty Moneymakers (2005)
 Compiled by Rob LaFranco
 
 U2, $154.2 million
 The Rolling Stones, $92.5 million
 Eagles, $63.2 million
 Paul McCartney, $56 million
 Elton John, $48.9 million
 Neil Diamond, $44.7 million
 Jimmy Buffett, $44 million
 Rod Stewart, $40.3 million
 Dave Matthews Band, $39.6 million
 Celine Dion, $38.5 million
 Kenny Chesney, $31.5 million
 Green Day, $31 million
 Coldplay, $30.1 million
 Destiny's Child, $24.8 million
 Diddy, $24.3 million
 Gwen Stefani, $23.9 million
 Toby Keith, $22.2 million
 Motley Crue, $22 million
 50 Cent, $19.7 million
 Bruce Springsteen, $19.6 million
 Eminem, $17.8 million
 Jay-Z, $17.5 million
 Barry Manilow, $17.2 million
 Hilary Duff, $17.1 million
 Kanye West, $16.9 million
 Dr. Dre, $16.9 million
 Rascal Flatts, $16.3 million
 Aerosmith, $16.3 million
 Bon Jovi, $15.8 million
 Tom Petty, $14.9 million
 
  http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9447993/the_richest_rock_stars_of_2006?rnd=1142879277598&has-player=true&version=6.0.11.847

HoyaSaxa03

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2006, 03:19:00 pm »
ggw, where the hell do you find these threads?  do you have some access to some secret search function that we don't?
(o|o)

ggw

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2006, 03:36:00 pm »
I'll never tell....

RatBastard

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Re: 50 Biggest Moneymakers
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2006, 06:02:00 pm »
All I can say is some people have no taste in music!  :p
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