Madonna tops Billboard Top 40 money makers

If you are in the music business, it's almost always all about the touring.

Billboard has released their yearly list of the top forty money makers in music and, once again, the vast majority of income is from touring. Over the entire top 40, touring income made up 68.9% of all money made and, for the top ten, it was 84.2%. Moving all the way to the top, 93.5% of the money Madonna made (this year's number 1) was from touring while 92% of Bruce Springsteen's (number 2) total was from the road.

There a couple of exceptions. Adele and Taylor Swift placed high on the list even though neither toured in 2012. Of course, they had two biggest selling albums of the year with numbers few others could touch.

Veteran artists took the top four spots but you have to go down to number 20 before you reach the next one. Overall, they have thirteen of the top 40 with nine not appearing on the 2012 list.

The top ten and the veterans on the rest of the list (2012 rank):

•01. (--) Madonna ($34.6 million)
•02. (--) Bruce Springsteen ($33.4 million)
•03. (--) Roger Waters ($21.2 million)
•04. (--) Van Halen ($20.2 million)
•05. (03) Kenny Chesney ($19.1 million)
•06. (--) Dave Matthews Band ($18.9 million)
•07. (19) Tim McGraw ($18.3 million)
•08. (09) Jason Aldean ($17.6 million)
•09. (--) Coldplay ($17.3 million)
•10. (35) Justin Bieber ($15.9 million)
•20. (--) Barbra Streisand ($10.6 million)
•21. (--) Neil Diamond ($10.5 million)
•25. (--) Red Hot Chili Peppers ($9.5 million)
•26. (--) Rolling Stones ($9.3 million)
•28. (32) Rush ($8.7 million)
•29. (13) Elton John ($8.6 million)
•31. (--) Phish ($7.3 million)
•35. (12) Journey ($7.0 million)
•38. (29) Rod Stewart ($6.5 million)

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