--- title: Taylor Swift Tops Billboard's Top Earning Musicians description: Taylor Swift topped Billboard's Money-Makers 2015 list with a total revenue of $73.5 million, beating out the likes of Adele and Drake. canonical: https://time.com/4319808/taylor-swift-is-the-top-earning-musician-of-2015/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-05T18:45:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:10.344Z og:title: Taylor Swift Is The Highest-Paid Musician of 2015 og:description: The pop princess beats everyone else by a long shot og:url: https://time.com/4319808/taylor-swift-is-the-top-earning-musician-of-2015/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a67df05dc8733b7/6988920bcf40a82250c43221/taylor-swift-top-earning-musician-2015.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Taylor Swift The 1989 World Tour Live In Detroit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taylor Swift Is The Highest-Paid Musician of 2015 twitter:description: The pop princess beats everyone else by a long shot twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a67df05dc8733b7/6988920bcf40a82250c43221/taylor-swift-top-earning-musician-2015.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taylor Swift Is The Top Earning Musician of 2015 > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=5b54fcd3-e9f1-400d-b5f5-5c4ad6ad408a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 5, 2016 6:45 PM UTC  DETROIT, MI - MAY 30: Taylor Swift performs on stage during the 1989 World Tour Live on May 30, 2015 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Larry Busacca/LP5/Getty Images for TAS) DETROIT, MI - MAY 30: Taylor Swift performs on stage during the 1989 World Tour Live on May 30, 2015 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Larry Busacca/LP5/Getty Images for TAS) Larry Busacca/LP5—Getty Images for TAS  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 5, 2016 6:45 PM UTC Between adding to her [ever-growing celeb squad](http://time.com/3578249/taylor-swift-interview/?iid=sr-link1) and [feigning shock at winning yet another award](http://time.com/4016437/vmas-2015-kanye-west-taylor-swift-video-vanguard-award/?iid=sr-link8), [Taylor Swift](http://time.com/4293954/taylor-swift-double-standards-vogue/?iid=sr-link1) is continuing her quest for world domination by claiming the title of top earning musician in 2015. The pop princess topped [_Billboard_](http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/list/7356755/billboard-top-40-money-makers-rich-list)‘s Top Money-Makers list for 2015, beating out heavy hitters like Adele and One Direction with a total revenue of $73.5 million. The majority of her earnings for the year came from her wildly successful _1989_ World Tour, clocking in at $61.7 million. Swift beat the other musicians in the ranking by a long shot; take for example, country crooner Kenny Chesney, who clocked in at number two, at $39.8 million, just over half of what Swift raked in during 2015\. Following Chesney were The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, One Direction and the Grateful Dead — all (with the exception of the young One Direction lads) who pulled most of their earnings from touring as well. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4319808/taylor-swift-is-the-top-earning-musician-of-2015/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4319808/taylor-swift-is-the-top-earning-musician-of-2015/"},"headline":"Taylor Swift Is The Top Earning Musician of 2015","datePublished":"2016-05-05T18:45:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:10.344Z","description":"The pop princess beats everyone else by a long shot","url":"https://time.com/4319808/taylor-swift-is-the-top-earning-musician-of-2015/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","Taylor Swift"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a67df05dc8733b7/6988920bcf40a82250c43221/taylor-swift-top-earning-musician-2015.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a67df05dc8733b7/6988920bcf40a82250c43221/taylor-swift-top-earning-musician-2015.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Taylor Swift The 1989 World Tour Live In Detroit","caption":"Taylor Swift The 1989 World Tour Live In Detroit","creditText":"Larry Busacca/LP5—Getty Images for TAS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4319808/taylor-swift-is-the-top-earning-musician-of-2015/","name":"Taylor Swift Is The Top Earning Musician of 2015"}}]}] ```