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http://www.prefixmag.com/news/paul-mccartney-heads-list-of-worlds-richest-singer/69105/ (http://www.prefixmag.com/news/paul-mccartney-heads-list-of-worlds-richest-singer/69105/)

There're some expected names near the top of the list, but what's interesting is how some well known stalwarts are wayyy down the list.

Such as, for the life of me I have no idea why Dave Matthews is apparently worth 250 mill, whereas one Bobby Zimmerman lags behind at 80 million. (BDW is right behind)

There are some unexpected placings but I think it's because this is total net worth, not just what each singer has made off of their music. For example, the only female in the top 50, Gwen Stefani gets in because she's made about $50 million from her clothing and perfume lines; almost twice as much as she's made from music. So, even though Dave Matthews' Band tours probably do make a ton of money (or at least used to, I'm not sure if they're still the draw they were 8-10+ years ago) he may be worth so much just because he's better invested than some of the older guys.

Well, there are a lot of revenue possibilities open to musicians and songwriters now besides records and broadcast and tour income.  Stage musicals are bigger than they've ever been.  Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio must have made far more money from Jersey Boys by now than they did from the sales of 4 Seasons records. I read someplace that ABBA, collectively, has seen six billion - yes that is billion - dollars in income from all the versions of the Mamma Mia show alone. I guess that's one reason why Mike and Stamos keep working so hard to try to get a BBs musical off the ground.

About Bob Gaudio, I read an article a few years back about him and Frankie Valli.  They made a gentleman's agreement, on a handshake, when they were teenagers that they would share all their money, because they deduced that one of the two of them would likely get rich and famous.  Frankie made more money with the seasons, and split all of it down the middle with Bob.  In the 70's, Bob produced "The Jazz Man" for Neil Diamond, and made a mint, and gave Frankie half of it.  They have an accountant somewhere who splits it all down the middle, they have all their money sent to him and he divvies everything up in half. 

Ain't that some sh*t? 

... BTW, I've got to be honest.  I had no idea Brian Wilson was worth so much money.  I mean, I think he should be, and I know he's always lived pretty fiscally responsibly (you can snort a lot of money, but hell you can't snort 10's of millions), but I had no idea he had actually amassed such a large fortune, I would have guessed 15 million or so.  Good for Brian. 

Whereas these lists can be fun , there is an awful lot of conjecture involved and therefore I take them with a pinch of salt.

How can Roger Daltrey be worth more than Pete Townsend (who isn't even on the list) who would receive the largest share of royalties as he is the main songwriter ?

Maybe because they don't consider Pete a singer? Even though he sang on a number of Who album tracks and had a few solo albums. 

Yeah, it's only frontmen.  BTW, Sammy Hagar is worth all that?  Good lord. 

As mentioned with some others above, probably not from his music: it's presumably from his brand of tequila.

I don't drink... I've heard of his tequila, and I know that's a big part of his image but I always had the impression that he was just trying to make money at that, and had no idea he was actually really really successful with it.  Good for him, I always liked that guy even though I wasn't a huge fan of his music.