Music
17 Jul 18

Ed Sheeran, U2 & Coldplay All Strike It Rich

U2 are the highest placed musicians on the latest Forbes magazine new rich list for celebrities, while Ed Sheeran is only three places behind the Irish band as the highest-earning solo musician with a whopping $110m.

Ed is number nine on the 2018 list. It's a massive jump in earnings considering that he wasn't even in the top 50 this time last year.
Our own U2 are at number six with $118m, making them the highest paid band on the planet during the past 12 months. While Coldplay are just behind them at number seven on Forbes magazine's top 100 rich celebrities list with $115m .
They're the only three from the music world to make it into the top 10 this year. Floyd Mayweather tops the list with $285m, with George Clooney breathing down his neck with $239m. At number three is Kylie Jenner with $166.5m.
“Forbes has been publishing the Celebrity 100 for 20 years, but there’s never been a more lucrative time to be famous than now, with 11 superstars earning $100 million or more over the past year,” says Zack O’Malley Greenburg, senior editor of media & entertainment.
“Entertainers have found all sorts of new ways to monetize their audiences, especially with the help of social media—one need look no further than The Rock and Kylie Jenner, both in our top five.”
Here's the top ten list:
1 Floyd Mayweather (Athlete) $285m
2 George Clooney (Actor) $239m
3 Kylie Jenner (Personality) $166.5m
4 Judy Sheindlin (Personality) $147m
5 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Actor) $124m
6 U2 (Musician) $118m
7 Coldplay (Musician) $115m
8 Lionel Messi (Athlete) $111m
9 Ed Sheeran (Musician) $110 m
10 Cristiano Ronaldo (Athlete) $108m
Explaining their methodology for compiling the list, Forbes explains: "The Forbes global Celebrity 100, edited by Zack O’Malley Greenburg and Natalie Robehmed, ranks "front of the camera" stars around the globe using their pretax earnings from June 1, 2017 through June 1, 2018, before deducting fees for managers, lawyers and agents.
"Forbes figures are based on numbers from Nielsen, Pollstar and IMDB, SoundScan, BookScan, ComScore and NPD, as well as interviews with industry experts and many of the stars themselves. The result is the definitive index of who's making what in the global business of fame."

Introducing the world's highest-paid entertainers:https://t.co/2xCmbNWkvm #Celeb100 pic.twitter.com/J7hsinVtrC

— Forbes (@Forbes) July 16, 2018

Akshay Kumar's $40.5M net worth lands him a spot on the #Celeb100 listhttps://t.co/EXNUYb8NSl pic.twitter.com/P8jhWkzaE5

— Forbes (@Forbes) July 17, 2018