Top 10 artists of 2012

$17,578,651.96Jason Aldean’s  ‘My Kinda Party’ tour was No. 13 on Billboard's list of 2012's top 25 tours with a gross of nearly $40 million for 59 shows. Each and every show was a sellout. He had strong record sales with “Night Train” selling more than one million records in 2012 and “My Kinda Party” selling over 590,000 records.$17,300,144.34The bulk of Coldplay’s cold hard cash comes from touring in support of their album “Mylo Xyloto.” The tour made it’s way through North America, Europe and Australia, bringing the band a total of $13.9 million in revenue.Single sales accounted for $954,000 in revenue, while albums at physical and digital retailers brought in another $1.3 million.$15,944,293.10Justin Bieber started 2013 by becoming the first artist to score five Billboard No. 1 albums before the age of 19. In 2012 he released his fourth album, Believe. The 18-year-old kicked off a tour in support of his new album which included hits, "Girlfriend" and "As Long As You Love Me."  The pop-star accumulated $2.6 million in physical album sales, with another $806,000 in digital album sales, and a whopping $1.8 million in digital track sales. Add $10 million from his sold-out Believe tour and the Biebs comes in at No. 10View the list »
Madonna's MDNA album

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Billboard has released their top 40 money making artists for 2012. Interestingly concerts made up close to 70% of the revenue for the 40 artists on Billboard's Moneymakers list. There were only two exception on the list, Adele and Taylor Swift, neither earned any income from concerts in 2012.

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Madonna tops the list, in large part because of her wildly successful MDNA tour, which made up 93.5% of her total revenue. Runner-up Bruce Springsteen earned 92% of his revenue from live shows.

Justin Bieber made it into the top 10 this year, but live shows only accounted for 60% of his income.

According to Billboard estimates, artists pocketed $373 million from concerts after paying agents, managers and expenses, up from $329 million in 2011.

The most popular touring artists are well past their peak, but continue to command large audiences due to their loyal fan base. Their aging fan base can afford to attend their concerts, but generally are not well versed in online access, impacting the artists sales in streaming music and digital downloads.

As Billboard points out, with the aging rock band Rush, they earned 77% from their live shows, but only brought in 16% of their revenue in digital sales and only .04% from streaming.

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View the list
  • $15,944,293.10Justin Bieber started 2013 by becoming the first artist to score five Billboard No. 1 albums before the age of 19. In 2012 he released his fourth album, Believe. The 18-year-old kicked off a tour in support of his new album which included hits, "Girlfriend" and "As Long As You Love Me."  The pop-star accumulated $2.6 million in physical album sales, with another $806,000 in digital album sales, and a whopping $1.8 million in digital track sales. Add $10 million from his sold-out Believe tour and the Biebs comes in at No. 10
  • $17,300,144.34The bulk of Coldplay’s cold hard cash comes from touring in support of their album “Mylo Xyloto.” The tour made it’s way through North America, Europe and Australia, bringing the band a total of $13.9 million in revenue.Single sales accounted for $954,000 in revenue, while albums at physical and digital retailers brought in another $1.3 million.
  • $17,578,651.96Jason Aldean’s  ‘My Kinda Party’ tour was No. 13 on Billboard's list of 2012's top 25 tours with a gross of nearly $40 million for 59 shows. Each and every show was a sellout. He had strong record sales with “Night Train” selling more than one million records in 2012 and “My Kinda Party” selling over 590,000 records.
  • $18,329,167.89Tim McGraw's ‘Brothers of the Sun’ tour with Kenny Chesney landed him in seventh place and tied for the sixth best concert earner of the year. Overall, the tour was No. 7 on Billboard's Top 25 Tours tally, grossing over $96 million with a total attendance of 1.1 million in only 23 shows.Only 7% of McGraw’s revenue came from CD royalties, while 3.7% came from digital track royalties and 1.4% was from digital album royalties.
  • $18,903,334.14Dave Matthews Band remains one of the most consistent earners in the music business, Dave Matthews Band earned $41 million from just 41 shows. They are said to be one of the most efficiently run touring operations in the industry. They also take advantage of their own in-house Bama Rags merchandising business.DMB’s revenue included the selling of 1.4 million digital tracks and 367,000 physical albums. These figures do not include Dave Matthews' financial interest in the ATO Record label.
  • $19,148,525.24Kenny Chesney is the most successful touring act in country music history, building his shows into lifestyle events enjoyed by more than 1 million fans every year. Adding to his success Chesney invited country superstar Tim McGraw along for the ride increasing his gross concert sales to nearly $100 millionChesney adds to his revenue with the sale of 64,142 ringtones and downloads of 4.6 million digital tracks.
  • $20,184,709.91Van Halen’s tour ended sooner than expected with a total of 32 canceled shows, but that didn’t stop them from grossing $54 million from 46 shows. The tour was in support of “A Different Kind of Truth” and the fact that David Lee Roth was brought back to front the band. The tour was cut short due to exhaustion.Van Halen sold 621,614 physical records and 213,524 digital albums in the United States, spiking non-touring earnings of an estimated $1.2 million for the band.
  • $21,160,131.06Roger Waters made it to No. 3 with “The Wall Live” tour, a song-for-song rendering of the landmark 1980 Floyd album, featuring stunning  visual elements wowing fans worldwide.The tour finished as the fifth-highest-grossing of all time, with a total gross of $377,895,537 and total attendance of 3.3 million from 192 shows worldwide.
  • $33,443,606.64Bruce Springsteen reunited with the E Street Band in 1999, Springsteen's tours have been the most financially successful of his career. His latest tour “Wrecking Ball” in support of the album helped him capture the top draw award, based on Boxscore attendance, at the 2012 Billboard Touring Awards.Springsteen finished close to $200 million gross, second only to Madonna among all tours. His shows have topped the 2 million mark as they continued on into 2013.Springsteen sold 600,000 physical albums in 2012, and 1.6 million digital track downloads, more than any other artist on this chart that broke in the '70s.
  • $34,577,308.62Madonna scored in a big way with her, at times, controversial ‘MDNA’ tour. The Material Girl achieved the No. 1 spot on the Moneymakers list for a second time, with her tour bringing in $305 million gross.Madonna generated $1.5 million in physical and digital album sales for her “MDNA” album.
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, Sacramento Concerts Examiner

Randy has been photographing and reviewing concerts since 2007. Covering the Sacramento area and Beyond. You can also follow Randy's ramblings at SacAndBeyond.com

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