Billboard has revealed the figures for its annual “Music’s Top 40 Money-Makers” list, and the absence of electronic music artists makes for a point of controversy once more. Despite the staggering earnings of DJ/producers in recent years, not a single one found their name in the feature.
For the second year running, Taylor Swift made #1 – boasting total 2015 earnings of $73.5 million. After entries eclectic enough to include The Rolling Stones, Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande, Romeo Santos brings up the rear at $6.2 million.
While factors contributing to the widely-speculated EDM bubble are certainly expected to affect artist booking figures for 2015, there’s no chance that the decrease could be substantial enough to justify DJ/producers’ absence on the list. To put it in perspective, Forbes reported Calvin Harris’ 2014 earnings as roughly $66 million.
Moreover, even Billboard‘s 2013 and 2014 “Music’s Top 40 Money-Makers” lists featured no greater dance music representation than the errant featured vocalist, despite bookings for such artists hitting their all-time high during the period in question. Nothing in the methodology section of any article in the series acknowledges the anomaly, so it’s optimistic to expect this year’s contributors to address it anytime soon.