You can easily guess the wealthiest livingmusicians, but how do they stack up to the richest musicians ever?
It helps to emerge at the right time (the late 1960s and early ‘70s or the mid- to late-‘90s, the two moments when the now-shrunken industry was at its largest), make shrewd investments (in publishing and elsewhere, but also by capitalizing on one’s own brand), and working across different media platforms (television, film, and touring).
Adjusting fortunes going as far back the the pre-rock-and-roll era for inflation, we made some surprising discoveries.
10. Michael Jackson: $350 million
The King of Pop earned $50 million a year through the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1985, he already had one of the biggest-selling albums ever ("Thriller," which sold 66 million copies worldwide) a series of incredibly lucrative tours, and a record $5 million deal with Pepsi (worth $11 million today) to his name, and the questionable investments started coming quickly.
He dropped $47.5 million to buy ATV Music, which included the Beatles’ catalog (which Paul McCartney would later buy back at a bargain).
In 1987, he bought the “Neverland” ranch for $19.7 million and invested another $35 million in it. By 2003, he held $200 million in debt, but even that wasn’t enough to break him.
9. Jimmy Buffett: $400 million
Buffett has been drawing his faithful Parrotheads and their battery-powered margarita blenders to amphitheaters every summer since 1976. (2011’s tour raked in $22 million).
And if you want an ersatz version of the experience, you might stop in at one of the many locations of Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise chain restaurants, located off an interstate exit near you.
8. Dolly Parton: $450 million
The woman who sang “9 to 5” is worth nearly half a billion dollars, due to a tireless work ethic (she’s written thousands of songs, including "I Will Always Love You," one of the best-selling singles of all time) and a shrewd awareness of how to market her cheerful persona and simple-country-girl backstory.
She does primarily via Dollywood, a theme park she bought and rebranded in 1986, and which draws millions to its gates each year.
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