Billboard Money-Makers List: Music's Top Earners of 2014
Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan of One Direction perform onstage at Madison Square Garden on December 7, 2012 in New York City.
Kevin Kane/Getty ImagesBillboard ranks the highest-paid musicians of the past year.
The measure of artistic success isn't easy to pin down -- and its not easy to quantify, either. Ten of Billboard's top reporters drilled down on artists' primary music-based revenue streams to determine who, from newcomers to legends, brought home the most bacon in 2014.
For further analysis on the data behind our list, like most lucrative revenue streams and genres, head this way.
(Scroll down to read the methodology of how this list was formulated)
No. 1 -- One Direction's Where We Are stadium tour was the biggest draw of 2014, attended by more than 3.4 million fans in five months. That translated into a total $40.7 million box-office take, or an average of $8 million apiece for the prefab group's members -- 21-year-olds Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Liam Payne (the youngest artists on this list); the recently departed Zayn Malik, 22; and Louis Tomlinson, 23. Though Malik's exit clouds the band's future, 1D's recorded music showed no signs of lag in 2014: More than 1.3 million album sales and 716.1 million streams meant $4.8 million in combined royalties.
No. 2 -- Katy Perry's 2013 Prism album and 46-city Prismatic Tour generated a double rainbow of earnings, including $3.2 million in music sales royalties.
No. 3 -- Justin Timberlake's "Not a Bad Thing" single was a good thing. Music sales royalties totaled $2.8 million and made JT the No. 1 solo male Billboard Hot 100 artist.
No. 4 -- Billy Joel netted $25.3 million with gigs at Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, plus a historic monthly residency at Madison Square Garden.
No. 5 -- Released 39 years ago, the Eagles' Greatest Hits 1971-1975 still sold almost 116,000 copies in 2014.
No. 6 -- Country's biggest star, Luke Bryan generated $3.8 million in music sales royalties even though his last album, Crash My Party, was released in August 2013.
No. 7 -- The 1D lads can only hope they'll have the longevity of Paul McCartney, who, at 72, is the oldest artist on this list, and still touring like a teenager. His U.S. live shows netted $20.8 million.
No. 8 -- Although he began topping country charts in the pre-Internet '80s, George Strait moved nearly 3 million digital tracks and 74 million on-demand streams.
No. 9 -- Jay Z's $456,000 in streaming royalties is the eighth-highest in the category, and, if Tidal is a success, his take should be bigger in 2015.
No. 10 -- Jason Aldean could have added "Big Money" to the title of his 2014 album, Old Boots, New Dirt. The LP contributed to $3 million in sales royalties.
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METHODOLOGY: Money Makers was compiled with Nielsen Music and Billboard Boxscore, 2014 U.S. data only. Revenue from merchandising, synchronization and sponsorship is not included. The following royalty rates, minus a 4 percent producer's fee, were used: album and track sales, 22 percent of retail revenue; streaming revenue, 22 percent for current acts and 50 percent for heritage acts. Publishing royalties were estimated using statutory mechanical rates for album and track sales and the Copyright Royalty Board streaming formula; for labels' direct deals with interactive services, blended audio and video rates of, respectively, $0.0075 and $0.0045. (A 10 percent manager's fee was deducted from each category.) Touring revenue equals 34 percent of an act's Boxscore.