--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beyoncé Is Now the Highest Paid Artist Because the Best Revenge Is Your Paper  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"}}]}] ```