Over the weekend, I was reading this Sia interview in Rolling Stone – it’s a great music-insider piece, where Sia describes her process of writing hit songs for artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce and more. I mention it because Sia apparently loves Katy Perry. Sia said it took some time for the two of them to become comfortable with each other’s style, but that once that happened, they get along really well. It reminded me of something that we hear about Katy Perry a lot: people like working with her. Dancers prefer Katy to Taylor Swift. Sia adores her. Producers and songwriters love her style. Her tours make buckets of money. While Katy is a nothingburger, she’s popular within the industry. And despite Taylor Swift’s best efforts to “win” the girl-feud that Swifty herself started, Katy still has a lot of friends.
I bring this up because Katy Perry is Forbes’ 2015 Highest Paid Musician. And she did it all with very little in the way of in-your-face shilling. She was on tour for most of the year, and she was quietly collecting high-paying endorsements and advertising contracts. Which is how Katy Perry made $135 million in one year. And for the second time in a week, a title that was supposed to go to Taylor Swift ended up being snatched by someone else! Taylor was supposed to have the most Grammy nominations AND be the highest paid musician. WAH!
Adele’s 25 sold a record-smashing 3.38 million copies the week after its November 20th release—but even if her launch had fallen within our scoring period, she wouldn’t have been among music’s top earners. Touring is now the industry’s main moneymaker, and perhaps nobody better exemplifies this that this year’s highest-paid musician in the world: Katy Perry.
The Super Bowl halftime star pulled in $135 million over the past year, making her not only the highest-paid musician of the past year, but the top-earning celebrity on the planet after Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. She grossed more than $2 million per city over the course of her Prismatic World Tour, and pads her coffers with other deals from Claire’s, Coty and Covergirl. Perry played 126 shows in our scoring period, the most of any act among the top ten—nine of whom performed in at least 20 concerts over those 12 months. She’s immediately followed in the rankings by two other road warriors: One Direction ($130 million) and Garth Brooks ($90 million).
What’s funny is that not only is Katy Perry the #1 celebrity on this list, but Taylor Swift is relegated to the #4 position!! Taylor has been on tour for most of 2015 as well, and Forbes actually notes that Swifty’s tour makes more money per city than Katy’s Prismatic Tour. But… Katy still makes bank because of her endorsements, advertising, etc. Forbes does say that Taylor will probably be the highest-paid musician for 2016, although I think their math might be off. We’ll see how Adele does, you know? And Taylor did get one honor – she and Calvin Harris beat Beyonce and Jay-Z as the highest-earning couple, according to Forbes. Calvin Harris is the highest-earning DJ in the world, actually.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Katy is a natural for advertising because she’s a “blank slate” (pun intended) with no strong personality or political positions. Everyone can project themselves on her: she offends no one.
I think so too. It’s kinda like how Diana Ross became the lead of the supremes. Her voice was less distinctive than the the other members. Thus easily changed to fit each song.
This isn’t surprising…as much as Katy doesn’t impress me music wise I’ve heard her tours are fantastic and she seems to have a great work ethic.
“It’s kinda like how Diana Ross became the lead of the supremes. Her voice was less distinctive
Errr… just no. Diana had an extremely distinctive voice. I mean show me the person who cant tell a Diana Ross song by sound alone…..seriously. She was picked for a number of reasons (which paid off given that her solo act made her the first female pop superstar). Firstly, she had a light, airy unusual sound. That set her apart from Mary who had an average every-Church-choir-has-one voice, and Flo who had this huge soulful voice. But the market for Florence sound was already crowded out by label mates like Aretha, Patti Labelle and Gladys Knight who were all lead singers in their respective groups. So they went with Diana and gambled that her airy voice would enable the cross over into white consumer segments that werent feeling the more soulful sound. The second reason was of course that Diana was a great “company man”. She was simply the most amenable to work with, Mary had/still has an attitude problem with authority and Flos abuse issues made her extremely unreliable (and eventually killed her).
As for Katy – dont know, dont care. Its just not in my wheel house tbh. Just glad the best paid people in the industry happen to be women. Come a long way from the days of the Supremes.
Aretha was never on Motown. I bought her first two Columbia albums in 1962 and she went to Atlantic late 60s. Otherwise, your analysis is fine.
“Just glad the best paid people in the industry happen to be women”
This is more interesting to me than framing the story yet again as one woman against another. Can’t people just be happy for Katy? Why drag Taylor into it?
@Naya, who wrote: “Errr… just no. Diana had an extremely distinctive voice. I mean show me the person who cant tell a Diana Ross song by sound alone…..seriously.”
I think what @Nicole means is that Diana Ross didn’t have the strongest/best voice of the trio–the original Supremes–Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, and Mary Wilson.
And here’s some gossip for you … It wasn’t Diana’s singing prowess that made her the singing ‘Lead.’ Her big career boost came from two things: 1) when they started out, the other two girls (and they were all very young, 15 and 16-years-old) were very shy and thought Diana verbally communicated better with white audiences, and 2) she began an affair with (married) Berry Gordy in the early 1960’s.
I love her voice, but Diana is a limited singer who was trained to sing in a jazz style for her role as Billy Holiday in “Lady Sings the Blues” (1972). Berry Gordy was the Executive Producer of the film. And we all now know that the first of her three daughters with Arne Rudolf Ludvig Raab (first husband, Arne Naess) was actually fathered by Berry Gordy.
It was Gordy who put Diana out front and changed the name from “The Supremes” to “Diana Ross and the Supremes” in 1967 after he fired Florence Ballard (although to this day they’re still saying she left because of a dispute with Motown … Gordy wanted her to lose weight, and Diana spied on the other two girls for Gordy) and replaced her with Cindy Birdsong (there is more than a grain of truth between the story of the “Supremes” and the musical “Dreamgirls”).
Not disputing Diana’s talent by any means but she was put at the front initially because she was screwing Berry Gordy.
ETA: should’ve scrolled down to see Emma’s response. Yes, that.
Emma the JP lover, 1000x yes. And sadly, Flo was the equivalent of a size 12/14 . The others were more like a 4/6:so yes she looked much bigger.
I agree, she had the strongest voice, but not that “It” factor, nor relationship with Berry.
And while everyone knows that the $$ was made from publishing royalties not tours then, only a few Motown artist kept there royalties, Stevie, Marvin and a scant few others, Diana is one of the only songbirds of that era who ended up mega rich without song credits. Ms.Ross was well taken care of!
Emma and Anon
Thats been the standard smear against Diana for over three decades. Heres the thing though; Berry slept with ALOT of the girls on his rota, none of whom went on to achieve what Diana did. One of Dianas many predecessors in that bed was FLORENCE BALLARD FYI and that was right in the middle of Gordy re-engineering the Supremes sound to fit Diana. Gordy + Diana didnt happen until after the cross over started. He even writes in his bio that the reason he got semi monogamous about Diana is because she wasnt as easy a conquest as all the other female singers he had access to, she had repeatedly turned him down. Even if for arguments sake, Di slept with Gordy for the lead, did she sleep with every record consumer too??? Why didnt any other of Gordys girls get lead singer on other groups? Why didnt Florence get Supremes lead singer having herself slept with him? Why didnt any of the girls who entered his bed become superstars?
Florence was sacked because she was an increasing no show at performances. It got so bad, that they actually hired a stand-in for the big shows just incase Flo chose that evening to go get high. IIRC, Cindy was eventually poached from Pattis girl group because The Supremes, biggest girl group in the world at the time, could never be sure if they would be on stage as threesome or a twosome on a given day. Cindy has spoken of how even she didnt know what day she would have to perform because nobody knew when Flo would be a no-show. So Cindy spent close to a year just trailing the girls and taking the stage when needed.
That management didnt replace Flo immediately after her first no-show is amazing, frankly.
The name change from Supremes to Diana Ross and the Supremes was in line with the renaming trend of the time. Tina and the Ikettes. Gladys and the Pips, Patti and the Belletes. Had Flo been the lead, no doubt the name would have changed to reflect that too. And finally, Florence and Mary were of the fashionable size. Slim with curves. If anything Diana was the awkward looking one. She had these gawky eyes, a try-hard grin, her face aged faster than the others, her shoulders hunched upwards, she was short, too thin and her skin was darker than all three girls. She came from the exact same hood as the other girls but she took elocution lessons and worked hard at speaking “correctly”. She didnt have a traditionally pretty face so she went for heavy glam to distract from that fact. She didnt indulge in celebrity excesses. In other words, she did what the others were unwilling to do.
Mary kept the Supremes going when Diana left nd yet was never able to duplicate the success they had with Diana. Shes still bitter that Diana succeded as a solo act and has basically driven the Diana hate brigade for half a century. Its shameful really. And because the world loves a good catfight, anything she claims is taken as fact, never mind that multiple insiders dispute her take. Or that she is hardly an impartial observer. Dreamgirls, which many seem to think is a Supremes bio film, is built around Marys tale. So take with a large pinch of salt.
Yeah. I bop to her music but it’s very middle of the road. Therefore it can appeal to as many people as possible.
I remember reading an article years back that explained Katy (and Rihanna) manage to stay just in front of the trends to stay relevant.
I watched her tour movie and I was not impressed. And the half time show was bland and unimaginative.
She’s publicly campaigning for Hillary Clinton….can’t get much more political than that! She’s also publicly discussed her religion and her relationship with God, which can also be an opinion divider. If the worst thing you can say about somebody is that they’re genuinely nice and therefore a bit bland, well, that’s one man’s opinion and frankly a useful quality for an actor or celebrity to have.
I was just thinking, “Uh what do you mean she doesn’t have strong political opinions, have you missed her entire push for Hilary?”
I actually disagree with the point completely. Katy is completely in your face. If she has an opinion she shares it and makes it clearly known. She’s very “I like this and hate this and don’t care if you like it or not.”
I actually think Swift is more middle of the road since other than choice in supermodels she tends to be quite private about her opinions.
@eternal side-eye ITA Katy has so much more personality than Tay-Tay. Her videos are goofier and more interesting, her music relies on less obvious themes, she took over Hillary’s Instagram and campaigned for her in Iowa. That nothingburger article made no sense—you may not like her over the top sexualized candy pop aesthetic, but she has a thing.
Eternal Side eye: yes, exactly! Amen.
She offends me with her stupidity.
^^^This all damn day.
Yep. Stupid girl with a great team behind her. Not unlike Jessica Simpson. A strong brand with tons of strong, very smart people behind it, with a dumb pretty face plastered on it. Works like a charm.
Junior
Thats not really true. We all know who Katy will vote for how she feels about gay marriage and most subjects that are divise in america. She very publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton. Taylor Swift on the other hand avoids these types of subjects that can be offensive. She stated so on her twitter.
Wrong – Katy Perry campaigns for Hillary Clinton. That’s a pretty strong opinion for a nothingburger. Especially when her peers haven’t been so vocal politically.
I guess this makes me a mean girl…but I love this. Poor Tay-Tay.
Taylor started it with writing Bad Blood and implying in a big interview that it was about Katy. We’re just carrying on with the example she set lol.
I have no qualms about it. I’m impressed with both women’s hustle but I prefer one over the other mainly because one of them doesn’t play victim after instigating issues in the first place.
All good, I always thought Katy is a much better entertainer than TS. None of them are amazing singers, but I feel KP makes a lot of effort for her public too.. for those who like all the shiny stuff. And the best testimony someone can have of their work ethic, is when their co-workers love them. That speaks volumes.
Good for her.
@Mimz …
I don’t know … I think Katy has a strong, authentic voice with a decent range. I also think it’s a shame that her “shiny stuff” as you call it detracts from her talent. Not many of today’s female singers could belt out “Firework” … live, that is, including Taylor Swift.
I do enjoy her voice, I like her. I actually don’t think that only people with “big” voices are entitled to be superstars, I, for one, would definitely watch a JLo concert because although she’s not the greatest singer, she puts on a great show! And to me that’s what matters the worst, good songs, and a performer that makes you feel every penny you spent is worth it.
I think KP works really hard and she deserves this. TS on the other hand, knows how to get the media’s attention, she’s a perfectly oiled PR machine but from what I’ve seen from her shows on youtube, she doesn’t do much entertaining (unless it involves bringing her newest BFF to the stage).
FTR I also really like “1989”.
The most, not the worst (what was I thinking?)
Agreed, but I’d rather listen to the voice than watch the show. The very best thing in the world is when you get both together in one package. 🙂 What’s the last concert you attended? I haven’t been to one in ‘years!’
I find her voice to be very pitchy, shouty and grating. I’m happy for her success because she seems pretty harmless, but I don’t think she is a great singer, or even a good singer. She gets by.
Agree. Some of Katy’s songs have an emotional side which a lot of people (particularly tweens & teens) relate to. I like her and appreciate her success.
I find Swift’s delivery of her songs cold, calculated, unauthentic & unemotional.
The comments are funny. Katy belting out “Firework” is her best musical accomplishment. While Taylor writes or co writes all her own music and can play piano and guitar…hmm..are we really arguing about who is more talented here? Really?? LOLOL
@WinnieCoopersMom I think you overestimate how much writing Taylo Swift does on her later albums. She has multiple co writers and honestly, are we now so desperate for artists to be writers, we don’t care about content? Half of her songs are ridiculous and cheesy, nothing to be impressed over. She also cannot dance or sing well. I don’t think Katy has much talent either but at least she’s not pretending to be a gift to the music industry (cough, Taylor).
Ahem.
“We are never ever ever getting back together”
“Cause a haters gonna hate hate hate hate”
“He’s soo tall and handsome as hell!”
“Good girl vibe and that tight little skirt”
“Bandaids don’t fix bullet holes.”
There’s a very obvious reason people don’t praise her song-writing abilities…it’s because they’re terrible.
@WinnieCoopersMom I think there’s more press given to Taylor in general…Katy also plays guitar and piano, and co-writes her songs. She has co-written songs for other artists.
We’ve just always heard So Much about Taylor’s ‘talent’ and ‘personal song-writing’. Whereas Katy just plays her instruments and writes, like many artists, without a whole lot of fanfare.
The only music Taylor wrote herself was her first album which was horrendous. She didn’t even understand the literary references she was throwing around wily-nilly, calling herself “the scarlet letter” to somebody’s Romeo. Her “songwriting” is nothing to brag about. And she isn’t an accomplished guitarist either. You could probably go to a middle schooler’s guitar recital and see similar skill in that regard. Taylor’s talents are showmanship, branding and self-promotion.
Both of these women have more skill and talent in showmanship than music. That’s why they are always “feuding” they’re nearly identical. Notice neither of them is ever feuding with anyone who can actually sing like Adele or Beyoncé.
I am always amazed at how much celebs make for advertising. I would never buy anything just because a famous face shilled it, in fact often times it has the opposite effect on me.
No matter how she did it, this is crazy money, and 1D made $130M? Good God.
I would never buy that stuff either but lots of people really fall for celeb products. Clearly with those numbers. I remember when I was a teen my aunt bragging about how my uncle bought her Elizabeth Taylor’s perfume, as if it was the best and most luxurious gift ever. She probably wasn’t keen on my less than enthused reaction.
I don’t think most consumers buy something just because Katy Perry tells them to. But Katy Perry in an H&M ad, for example, makes you more likely to look at it and then decide that you like the sweater, or the brand, after all. And you’re supposed to transfer your positive feelings about the endorser to the brand i.e. Katie’s cool, and Maybelline is cool.
That’s why you never see Donald Trump as a celebrity endorser, or Shia Le Boeuf, or Azaelia Banks.
Even Halle Berry’s endorsements pretty much fell away after the Gabriel Thanksgiving beatdown, and so did Gabriel’s. It didn’t matter who was at fault – it just mattered that both of them now brought up negative associations.
Donald Trump was shilling for Macy’s until very recently (he may still be in some of the ads).
I was at Target yesterday and Sofia Vergara’s ad for some makeup brand had been drawn all over. Typical stuff, unibrow, mustache, etc., but I remember rolling my eyes and then realizing I really doubt she’d care because she’s making bank!
I admire Katy Perry and Taylor Swift for their tour schedules. They are pretty gruelling and yes, lucrative, but it must take a toll on your health to change cities everyday and be on the road all the time. Both amazing business women. Nice to see so many women in charge!
Couldn’t agree more about them both being amazing business women. Their both doing their thing. They work hard and deserve all the success they are getting!
I was going to post some bitchy comment about how Katy Perry would be way more fun to hang out with than Taylor Swift, but you are completely right. It is amazing to see so many women head up Highest Earning lists. Plus Taylor Swift is my go to when I am drunk and watching YouTube. Ach, I kind of love them both.
I agree with this. I don’t like most of their music, but they did put in a ton of hard work to earn that cash. You are so correct, touring is very physically and mentally exhausting.
I saw Calvin Harris at EDC Orlando and his set was bland as hell. I would hate to have paid to see *just* him. Who does? Zedd may be poppy but he puts on a helluva show.
1. I’m jealous that you went to EDC. Haven’t made one yet.
2. Calvin Harris is highest paid because he’s on every pop track so he’s mainstream.
3. I firmly believe Calvin and Taylor are not together anymore and she’s afraid to say anything because it reinforces her quick relationship stereotype.
4. I’m on Fedde LeGrand right now.
Hahahaha oh this is perfect, Taylor is going to shit ponies and glitter over this…I can’t wait!
Are you kidding me????She’s probably sacrificing them at an alter right now.
I don’t think either is a particularly talented musician, but I guess people are lining up for the concerts. How much are Katy Perry tickets that she’s making $2 million/city?
I can’t even imagine the price tag. Don’t even get me started on concert ticket prices. Professional sports events, too. Grr.
It’s insane what some of these acts charge. $200-300 for a basic ticket? Sports tickets are crazy too, even if a team isn’t very good.
I did just see the amazing Grace Potter put on a hell of a show, for a whopping $40. And she can sing circles around Perry or Swift.
$40, I love it. I need to take my son to more shows like that. His first big concert was U2 and the tickets were almost $300 each for nosebleed seats.
One of my only expenses when I was young and poor was going to see live music. It was relatively affordable, even for the big names and so worth it even when it got pricey. But “pricey” back then is nowhere near what “pricey” is now. Such a shame.
Wow, that’s crazy! I saw U2 during their Pop tour, we were maybe 10 rows from the stage, and tickets were about $100. It’s amazing how much the prices have skyrocketed in recent years.
Yeah I have seen Swift for $200 and Ingrid Michaelson for about $40…They are different concert experiences. You know what you’re getting with each. But as far as voice talent alone, OMG Ingrid is impressive. Also have seen James Bay for $40, who is up and coming. Sometimes these are the concerts where it’s at, just have to find great artists who aren’t overrated.
This is literally the third time you have written about this info. Forbes numbers are based on June 2014-June 2015, and they’ve used this exact same info for three different articles in the past few months all of which you’ve used to attack Swift and act like this is somehow surprising.
Because these numbers miss half of the year and most of Swift’s tour, her numbers are lower than you would otherwise expect, because Forbes in on a one year lag, so she’ll definitely be top in 2016 and then Adele will be tops in 2017. This really shouldn’t be difficult for you to understand at this point.
why does it matter? katy is still winning, though.
Hey look it’s John, that one guy who always shows up solely to defend Taylor Swift! Hmm, I wonder who’s defending her if I look on other sites….John, John, John, yes John, oh John…how surprising!
And so in plainspoken English, Katy Perry was the highest earning music act and the 3rd highest earning celeb during the referenced time period, fair and square. You act like they’re doing something deceptive here, and they aren’t. Why not just be happy for Katy the same way you’ll be overjoyed without reservation or caveat next year if it’s Swift and not Adele?
Aside from what Stars points out – Forbes, and thus Kaiser, continue to write about Perry being at the top of the list (above Swift) because it continues to generate a lot of interest.
Why? Because everyone, including my 79 year old mother, knows that Swift has bad blood with Perry. And how does everyone in the free world know about this bad blood?… oh yeah right. So now its fair game in the world of celebrity to for others to keep tabs.
I agree with John. You have to look at the numbers more broadly. Also, although Adele’s record sales are astronomical, I suspect she won’t tour at the same level Katy and Taylor Swift tour (i.e. number of venues/dates), so her numbers aren’t going to be as high. As the article points out — touring is where the money is made. Too many people other than the artist get a cut out of the record sales.
To me Katy wears too much makup.
Yeah but the makeup and costumes are the only things making her look distinctive. Otherwise, she’s painfully average-looking.
Ouch!!😂 You really hate her don’t you kitten? So many harsh comments about her looks, music, intelligence today. It’s funny in a way because you have a soft spot for the equally bland average looking musically mediocre Taylor swift.
@Inez throwing down some truth!!
HA!!!
I watched the video of Katy’s Prismatic Tour and that concert is a mess. The costumes, props and sets are awful and her singing and dancing is way below average. I’m no fan of Taylor’s real/fake personality but was impressed by the 1989 tour. The production was quite amazing and it was a great concert, minus the videos of the Squad (ugh) regaling the audience with how wonderful a friend Taylor is.
I am happy for Taylor Swift.Say whatever you want to her! Go girl!
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Tay Tay. Stop being such a mean girl like you accuse everyone else of being and eat some crow. Not a big fan of the other either, but at least she’s tolerable.
At least Taylor can say that her cats are more famous than Katy’s…
Hahahaha but can they say that they’ve got more clever and good humored names than Kitty Purry? 🙂
“Kitty Purry” inspired her stage name to be Katy Perry. (Real name is Katheryn Hudson.)
@WinnieCoopersMom: I thought she chose Perry because it was her mom’s maiden name? And she didn’t want to use her real name because of the potential for confusion between Katy Hudson and Kate Hudson.
That ‘richest couple’ thing was such a joke. I have to believe it was paid for and pushed by Swifty because months later we barely even see Calvin anymore. Same with her and her ‘squad’. Taylor goes through phases with people and no real award should be based on a temporary relationships
.
I actually found it offensive because it would seem like they were so desperate to have a white couple leading it that they were totally willing to ignore the fact that Jay-Z and Beyonce are worth 560 and 450 million SEPERATELY and that Swift and Harris aren’t even married and can’t combine assets anyway. I mean come on.
Agreed. It was such a total, “Well these rules wouldn’t apply anywhere else but we’re going to fudge it so this bland couple can claim a title they don’t deserve.”
So ridiculous.
I think the best conversation to have is about how women are absolutely crushing it in the music industry. They are all winning, because they are all dominating.
Right on, Miss V.
Man, people like the worst f*cking music…
A-men!!!
“People don’t like what I like so they must like garbage.”
Neither Katy Perry or Taylor Swift have the most offence music out there, they aren’t what I listen to ether but lets not shit our own pants saying they have “the worst f*cking music” because I can guarantee theres worse out there.
This is my defense for loving NSync and now One Direction. It’s my guilty pleasure…but I’m in my late 20s now. At what age does it become creepy? Have I already passed it?
@Meowsy-I would choose offensive over insipid because at least the former is provoking a reaction. Bland doesn’t do much for me.
Anyway, everyone seems a bit too offended by the opinion of an internet stranger. I generally find American pop music derivative and uninspired. Again, JMO.
*shrugs*
@KB- I don’t think you can put an age limit on musical taste though. If you like pop, then you like pop. No need to be ashamed about it.
How great that we have you to be the judge of other people’s tastes.
You’re welcome.
Totally off topic….
Am I the only one that REALLY likes Katy with that auburn hair?? I’ve always found her Elvis black or blonde to be too stark of a contrast…..but I really like the red on her.
I love her whole look in the top photo. Oh to be able to pull that off.
I love it too! It was the impetus for me changing my hair color. My stylist said it was too dark for me (don’t know why) and I wound up going red, which I really like too! I guess she’s one of those Linda Evangelista types that have the skin tone for many hair colors.
Team Perry all the way.
I love Katie. I connect with her songs (I know, I know… Please don’t judge).
In your face Taylor Swift! )))
Its even more funny that Katy was basically out of the public eye whole year. While Taylor was in everyone faces every week. And still Katy made more!
What’s with the squinting her eyes in every photo? Is she short-sighted? Too much botox? The new thing that people do in pictures to try to be sexy, like duckface or open mouth? I’ve been seeing it for a while now in several pics of famous and random people alike and I find it ridiculous, I can’t imagine why someone would think it’s a good look on anyone.