Some, of course, still managed to pull through.

Rolling Stone magazine recently released its annual list of the highest paid artists over the past 12 months. And the list has a few surprises in store.

Bruce Springsteen is at the top of the list, with revenues estimated by the publication at US$590 million.

The Boss owes this top spot to the sale of his music rights to Sony for half a billion dollars. This is, to date, a record transaction for a catalogue of recorded music and compositions.

The income of the American rockstar also took off thanks to the podcast “Renegades: Born in the USA” and the book of the same name that he released with former president Barack Obama.

Jay-Z and Paul Simon follow Bruce Springsteen in the ranking, with estimated earnings of US$470 million and US$260 million respectively for the year 2021.

The rapper amassed a small fortune by selling half of his shares in the Armand de Brignac champagne house to Moët Hennessy.

Meanwhile Paul Simon also sold the rights to all the songs in his musical repertoire to Sony Music Publishing.

The lucrative business of selling rights to musical catalogues

Many of the artists appearing in Rolling Stone’s list also sold rights to all or part of their music catalogue last year.

This is the case for Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic (in fifth place) as well as members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (in 6th) and Mötley Crüe (in eighth).

While music repertoire prices began to rise in 2020, they really spiked when artists found themselves without tours and concerts during the pandemic.

Only one woman made it to the top 10 paid artists of the year 2021: Taylor Swift in tenth. The American singer went a different route from many of the artists, not choosing to sell the rights to her catalogue.

Instead, she released two albums last year, “Red (Taylor’s Version)” and “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” and forged commercial partnerships with brands like Peloton and Starbucks.

Check out Rolling Stone’s entire list of the highest paid artists in 2021 below:

1. Bruce Springsteen (US$590)
2. Jay-Z (US$470 mil)
3. Paul Simon (US$260 mil)
4. Kanye West (US$250 mil)
5. Ryan Tedder (US$200 mil)
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers (US$145 mil)
7. Lindsey Buckingham (US$100 mil)
8. Motley Crue (US$95mil)
9. Blake Shelton (US$83 mil)
10. Taylor Swift (US$80 mil)