Taylor Tops Tour Earners

Unsurprisingly, Taylor Swift (pictured) was the top of the tour earners last year, with the pop star’s ‘1989’ world tour generating $61.7 million in revenue.

According to Billboard’s annual tour rankings , country artist Kenny Chesney was second on $38.1m, followed by The Rolling Stones, who only made a paltry $37.3m despite not really going on a world tour, suggesting that these rock n rollers have a bright future ahead of them.

There were some slightly more surprising entries further down the list, however, with Billy Joel in fourth place with $30.1m following a record Madison Square Garden run, and just ahead ahead of Grateful Dead/Dead & Company at $22.5m. Who says that the live sector is all about heritage acts these days? One Direction and Shania Twain also made the top ten but if that don’t impress you much, just remember that The Gen didn’t start the fire and head to Billboard to find out more.

Looking at 2016, Justin Bieber’s ‘Purpose’ tour is the highest earning tour so far, with sales of over $40m from 29 shows.