Billboard Magazine has published a list of the top music moneymakers for 2012, and Mötley Crüe, Rush, Foo Fighters and Linkin Park made their list. The list took a look at US income only, and covered what their net earnings were, not gross income. Not surprisingly, many of the artists grossed the majority of their income through touring, even though album sales favored into the equation with mega-sellers like Adele. Also not that shocking is that digital revenue was only a fraction of most artists’ revenues.
Mötley Crüe was the most “metal” of the moneymakers, coming in at #38 on the list, having made $5,376,272. That’s a pretty solid take from playing mainly Summer dates. They’ll probably be on next year’s list factoring in the Las Vegas residency they just wrapped up and if their rumored tour with KISS this Summer becomes a reality. The band sold 183,000 copies of their albums in 2011, along with 700,000 digital tracks. Not too shabby.
Rush also appeared on the list, coming in at #32 with a gross of $5,819,304. That’s almost all touring revenue, considering their live album didn’t do amazingly well. They’re not metal necessarily, but Foo Fighters made just slightly more than Rush, landing at #31 on the list with revenues of $6,013,257. And proving that a 31 year-old song can make a bunch of money, Journey came in at #12, making $12,313,822. And lastly, Linkin Park came in at #40 on the list, making almost $5.2 million. In all, it’s cool to see at least some rock/metal names on the list amidst all the country, pop and hip-hop.
