--- title: Beyonce Is the Highest Paid Musician of 2016, richest artist description: Beyoncé told the world that the "best revenge is your paper" and as the top earning musician of 2016, it looks like she's living her truth. canonical: https://time.com/4856743/beyonce-highest-paid-musician-2016/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-13T20:40:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:45:21.729Z og:title: Beyoncé Is the Highest Paid Artist in the Music Industry og:description: Bow down to Queen Bey og:url: https://time.com/4856743/beyonce-highest-paid-musician-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e9f2678e1d35635/6988d593bc6cfc13a53e23a4/beyonce-highest-earning-musician-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Beyonce "The Formation World Tour" - Santa Clara og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beyoncé Is the Highest Paid Artist in the Music Industry twitter:description: Bow down to Queen Bey twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e9f2678e1d35635/6988d593bc6cfc13a53e23a4/beyonce-highest-earning-musician-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beyoncé Is Now the Highest Paid Artist Because the Best Revenge Is Your Paper > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 13, 2017 8:40 PM UTC  SANTA CLARA, CA - SEPTEMBER 17: Entertainer Beyonce performs on stage during "The Formation World Tour" at Levi's Stadium on September 17, 2016 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) SANTA CLARA, CA - SEPTEMBER 17: Entertainer Beyonce performs on stage during "The Formation World Tour" at Levi's Stadium on September 17, 2016 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) Kevin Mazur—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 13, 2017 8:40 PM UTC [Beyoncé](http://time.com/4802554/jay-z-beyonce-relationship-timeline/) told the world on her [epic visual album, _Lemonade_](http://time.com/4631309/beyonce-lemonade-impact/), that the “best revenge is your paper” and judging from her status as the top earning musician of 2016, it looks like she’s living her truth. [_Billboard_](http://www.billboard.com/photos/7865108/highest-paid-musicians-2016-money-makers) released its annual “Top 50 Money Makers” list for last year on Thursday, with Queen Bey topping the list at a whopping $62.1 million, which laps Guns N’ Roses’s $42.3 million, in second place, by $20 million. Beyoncé’s major windfall this year came from her Formation World Tour, which clocked in at $54.7 million, according to [_Forbes_](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https%3A//www.forbes.com/pictures/hldk45fd/17-beyonc-54-millio/&refURL=https%3A//www.google.com/&referrer=https%3A//www.google.com/). Following close behind Guns N’ Roses was Bruce Springsteen, who affirmed that he’s still “the Boss” with $42.2 million. Drake followed in fourth place with $37.3 million, while Adele came in 5th place $37 million. Other artists who made the list this year include Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Rihanna, and Billy Joel. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4856743/beyonce-highest-paid-musician-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4856743/beyonce-highest-paid-musician-2016/"},"headline":"Beyoncé Is Now the Highest Paid Artist Because the Best Revenge Is Your Paper","datePublished":"2017-07-13T20:40:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:45:21.729Z","description":"Bow down to Queen Bey","url":"https://time.com/4856743/beyonce-highest-paid-musician-2016/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music","Beyonce"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e9f2678e1d35635/6988d593bc6cfc13a53e23a4/beyonce-highest-earning-musician-2017.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/blt0e9f2678e1d35635/6988d593bc6cfc13a53e23a4/beyonce-highest-earning-musician-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beyonce \"The Formation World Tour\" - Santa Clara","caption":"Beyonce \"The Formation World Tour\" - Santa Clara","creditText":"Kevin Mazur—WireImage","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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4856743/beyonce-highest-paid-musician-2016/","name":"Beyoncé Is Now the Highest Paid Artist Because the Best Revenge Is Your Paper"}}]}] ```