Proving that they haven’t forgotten about him this year, Forbes Magazine has given the title of highest-paid musician of 2014 to Dr. Dre. According to the magazine’s newest list, Dre’s earnings in 2014 were $620 million before taxes. Very little of that came from him being an active musician, however, since the last album he released was 1999’s 2001, and there’s the possibility that the long-percolating Detox album might not ever see the light of day, at least not as Detox. Nor did his massive windfall in 2014 come from licensing his classic albums to his own streaming service, but instead from the $3.2 billion dollar deal to sell that service—and the rest of Beats Electronics—to Apple.
No other musical artist, not even those who are actually touring and releasing albums, could compete with all of that crazy headphones money, leaving Beyoncé in a distant second place with only $115 million in her shiny, shiny pocketbook. Rounding out the top five were The Eagles ($100 million), Jon Bon Jovi ($82 million), and Bruce Springsteen ($81 million), while last year’s top earner, Madonna, dropped out of the top 30 altogether, one year after knocking Dre out of the top spot. Because the list covered the period of June 2013 to June 2014, this year‘s only artist to sell a million copies of an album in a week, Taylor Swift, found herself at number 11 with a mere $64 million. Her upcoming world tour should give Dre some competition for the top spot in 2015, however.
