Barely a week after reports that Paris Hilton raked in close to $3 million for four DJ nights in Ibiza, Forbes has released their annual list of the world’s highest paid DJs (or, “Electronic Cash Kings,” as it were). And, wouldn’t you know it, Heiress Hilton didn’t make the cut.
It probably won’t surprise many to learn who did, though, considering that the list stayed more or less unchanged from last year’s. So what did shift? Well, Jersey Shore’s Pauly D saw a welcome slide from the list as he and Diplo were edged out by newcomers Zedd and Hardwell. Zedd, a big room electro DJ/producer from Russia, is estimated to have brought in $21 million touring and producing tracks for the likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, while Dutch progressive dude Hardwell rode his DJ Magazine “No. 1 DJ in the whole entire world” award to a sweet $13 mil over the last 12 months.
Other than that, things look basically just like they did in 2013, and 2012 even, as Calvin Harris easily maintained his number one spot with an estimated income of $66 million (up 31% from last year’s haul of $44MM). The usual suspects fill out the rest of the list: Skrillex ($16.5MM), Avicii ($28MM), David Guetta (30MM), etc.. etc…
More interesting, in the “near misses” category are arguably more-deserving acts Daft Punk and Paul Oakenfeld, joined by the two guys from Swedish House Mafia who aren’t Steve Angello and newly defeated (and previously mentioned) Pauly D and Diplo.
All in all, the total income of electronic music’s top 13 stars jumped 11% from last year while your favorite DJs are most likely barely scraping by.