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    Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Forbes

    Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Forbes

  • The World's Highest Paid Country Musicians 2014

    Country musicians are America’s new rock stars—commercially, at the very least. Of the ten best-selling albums in the U.S. last year, three were country, and only one (Imagine Dragons’ Night Visions) could possibly be classified as rock. These days, top country acts are even outpacing the biggest names in mainstream pop music.

  • The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop's Wealthiest Artists 2014

    Back in 2007, Sean “Diddy” Combs teamed with Jay Z and 50 Cent to create a song titled “I Get Money: Forbes 1-2-3 Billion Dollar Remix.” Less than a decade later, rappers are closing in on ten-figure fortunes, and he’s the nearest of the bunch.

  • Cash Kings 2013: The World’s Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Artists

    Sean “Diddy” Combs hasn’t always agreed with FORBES’ evaluations of his wealth. “[Screw] the Forbes list,” he rapped on a Rick Ross song three years ago. “Let’s tell the truth: I ate more.” These days, however, the hip-hop mogul is changing his tune. “You started learning how to count right, I see,” Diddy told FORBES [...]

  • Forbes Names Top 5 Highest Paid DJs

    By Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Forbes Staff It was a few minutes after midnight when the models walked in—a signal that the party at Las Vegas superclub Hakkasan was just beginning. About two dozen of them took their places along the banquettes behind the DJ booth, dancing and smiling at the 3,000 gyrating bodies on the [...]

  • Dr. Dre Unseats Jay-Z As Hip-Hop’s Top Earner

    Six years ago Dr. Dre was walking along the beach with Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine, pondering whether or not he should launch his own shoe line. "[Forget] sneakers," said Iovine. "Let's sell speakers!" It might have been the best piece of advice the rapper-producer ever received. In 2008 he teamed with Iovine and a [...]

  • The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists

    Back in 2007, Jay-Z, Diddy and 50 Cent released "I Get Money (The Forbes 1-2-3 Billionaire Remix)." The song was a celebration of the artists' inclusion atop the first-ever Forbes Hip-Hop Cash Kings list, now an annual package on the genre's top-earning artists. It seems fitting that those same three artists find themselves in an [...]

  • Billionaires Of The Music Business 2012

    Guy Laliberte is the wealthiest fire-breather in the world, and he's getting even richer. The former street performer founded Cirque du Soleil in 1984 and still owns 80% of the company; revenues topped $1 billion for the first time this year, placing his personal net worth at $2.6 billion, up $100 million last year. The [...]

  • The Top Earning Women in Music

    Alicia Keys gave birth to her first child in October 2010, but she barely skipped a beat in the year that followed. In 2011, the "Empire State of Mind" songstress co-directed a short film called Five, co-produced the Broadway debut of Stick Fly, grossed nearly $700,000 per night for a string of live concerts, and [...]