Even world-famous entertainers need diversified income streams.

Photo by Szabó Viktor from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/hand-holding-smartphone-with-internet-access-to-youtube-3227986/

For many pop stars, most of their revenue comes from concert tours, album sales, and song streams. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, for instance, is estimated to have brought in $2.2 billion in ticket sales just in North America alone. Bad Bunny’s 2022 album Un Verano Sin Ti sold 3.398 million album-equivalent units in that year alone.

But what do these pop stars make from the Google Adsense ads on their YouTube channels? To find out, I used a helpful website called Social Blade, which provides estimated earnings reports on various social media sites. While it’s impossible to determine an exact number without seeing a channel’s actual analytics page, Social Blade can give you a good idea of the range.

For this article, I’ll post the range, using a number in the middle as the estimate, and provide a link to each Social Blade stat page so you can check it out yourself.

On to the list. In no particular order, but starting with the reigning pop queen herself:

1.) Taylor Swift

Source: Screenshot of Taylor Swift’s YouTube channel

Social Blade stat page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $1,381,500 ($163,300 — $2.6 million)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $16,850,000 ($2M — $31.7M)

Sixteen million sure sounds like a lot. But to put that in perspective, it’s only .72% of the $2.2 billion in ticket sales she generated just in North America. Basically lunch money for Ms. Swift.

2.) Lady Gaga

Source: Screenshot of Lady Gaga’s YouTube channel

Social Blade stat page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $345,200 ($40,600 — $649,800)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $4,143,650 ($487,300 — $7,800,000)

Lady Gaga has gotten more into acting these days. Her last video upload was almost eight months ago. But at least she has a nice YouTube side hustle to fall back on, should Joker 2 not pan out.

3.) Dua Lipa

Source: Screenshot of Dua Lipa’s YouTube channel.

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $262,550 ($30,900 — $494,200)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $3,135,300 ($370,600 — $5,900,000)

It’s tough to break through on YouTube. But it certainly helps when your music is used in the soundtrack to Barbie, the biggest film of the year. “Dance the Night Away” is a pretty alright jam.

4.) The Weeknd

Source; Screenshot of The Weeknd’s YouTube Channel

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $523,800 ($61,600–$986,000

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $6,269,750 ($739,500 — $11,800,00)

Like Lady Gaga, The Weeknd has also made the jump into acting. But doing gigs like the halftime show for Super Bowl LV has also helped ensure he stays relevant in the YouTube algorithm.

5.) Miley Cyrus

Source: Screenshot of Miley Cyrus’ YouTube Channel

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $179,250 ($21,100 — $337,400)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $2,126,500 ($253,000 — $4,00,000)

Then you have Miley, who left acting to pursue singing full-time. Famous for twerking on Robin Thicke, Ms. Cyrus has done very well in 2023 with her album Endless Summer Vacation and a number one hit with “Flowers.”

6.) Rihanna

Source: Screenshot of Rihanna’s YouTube Channel

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $497,600 ($58,500 — $936,700)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $5,951,300 ($702,600 — $11,200,000)

Talk about getting the best bang for your buck. Rihanna’s channel only hosts 84 videos, but still makes almost $6M a year in ad revenue. Her last upload was eight months ago. Of course, it certainly helps when you’ve been a household name for almost twenty years.

7.) Harry Styles

Source: Screenshot from Harry Styles’ YouTube Channel

NOTE: These stats only include Harry Styles the solo artist, not as part of One Direction.

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $127,400 ($15k — $239,800)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $1,539,950 ($179,900–$2,900,000)

Harry Styles’ boy band days with One Direction may be over, but he’s still making a name for himself as a solid solo act, actor, and YouTuber.

8.) Selena Gomez

Source: Screenshot of Selena Gomez’ YouTube Channel

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $286,800 ($33,700 — $539,900)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $3,452,450 ($404,900 — $6,500,000)

Like Taylor Swift, Selena is one of the OG music YouTubers, uploading her first video fifteen years ago, when the singer was all of 16 years old. But now at 31, she’s still doing quite well for herself on stage, TV, and in the Google Adsense game.

9.) Michael Jackson

Source: Michael Jackson’s YouTube Channel

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $326,750 ($38,400 — $615,100)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $3,930,650 ($461,300 — $7,400,00)

The King of Pop may have passed away in 2009, but his legacy lives on forever in the YouTube sphere.

10.) Britney Spears

Source: Screenshot of Britney Spears’ YouTube Channel

Social Blade stats page.

Monthly Revenue from YouTube: $187,050 ($22,000 — $352,100)

Annual Revenue from YouTube: $2,232,050 ($264,100 — $4,200,000)

Britney’s best days as a performer may be behind her, but that doesn’t mean she can’t rely on a generous revenue stream from her YouTube channel. In addition to being a top-selling artist, Ms. Spears can now add bestselling author to her lengthy list of accomplishments. Her memoir The Woman in Me sold 1.1 million copies in its first week.

And God only knows what she could be doing to Travis Kelce.

Source: Made with Midjourney by the author. Taylor sitting on her pile of gold.

Taylor Swift is a woman of many talents. A global pop queen and beauty icon, serial boyfriend dumper, and one of the OG YouTube success stories. With her massively successful Eras Tour now in its international leg, and her docu-concert movie premiering in theaters this week, Taylor Swift is well on her way to becoming a billionaire.

Well, you can add brain damager to the growing list of her innumerable accolades.

Attendees of Taylor’s Eras Tour concerts are reporting a strange side effect that’s causing them to forget large gaps of her performance.

Fox News reports, according to Dr. Nathan Carroll, a psychiatrist at the Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, that this is actually a legit neorological condition called transient global amnesia. Or TGA.

Says Dr. Carroll:

Individuals who experience TGA will attend an event (like a concert, wedding or festival) and later report undeniable gaps in their memory.
For example, during the event, it may look like you’re acting normally and answering questions — but later, you may not recall some of your conversations.
Unlike other amnesias, memory loss is very limited, only lasting about a day, and people don’t forget [autobiographical] information.

In other words, Taylor Swift is so damn good she’s literally blowing people’s minds. Hey, nothing wrong with that, right?

Dr. Carroll goes on to explain that other things like poor sleep, dehydration, anxiety, and anticipation can also cause the brain to blackout portions of activity. Somewhat frightening is also how Swifties don’t even realize TGA is happening to them until much later when they ironically remember that they forgot so much.

TGA reminds me of that weird driving phenomenon called “highway hypnosis.” This is where you drive for long periods of time without recollecting most of the trip. It can happen on short drives from work, or lengthy drives across the state. No doubt blasting “Shake It Off” makes it even worse.

Dr. Soha Salman, another psychiatrist working at the ridiculously wordy Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, also blames other unique aspects of Taylor’s concerts like the nostalgia vibes and the emotional connection fans have to her music.

The doctor mentions how things like elevated blood pressure, stress hormones, and the release of cortisol and adrenaline could also be causing the mass short-circuiting of Swiftie brains.

But it’s what Dr. Salman had to say about the use of cell phones that interested me most:

By simultaneously trying to use your phone and watch the concert, you may overtax your working memory and affect your ability to store those specific memories.

Studies have also found that when we are recording something with our smartphones, we are relying on them to remember for us. This could lead to poorer recall of the event later.

Experiencing concerts and other events through the smartphone is something I’ve noticed has become a bizarre modern trend. I realize many are using social media apps to share what’s happening with their friends. But then aren’t you short-changing yourself by missing out on what’s happening right in front of you by acting as a virtual host? Seems counter-productive and unnecessarily burdensome.

Real friends would tell you to pay attention and enjoy the show, and not worry about sharing every second of it with them. Live in the moment. But then I guess everyone feels entitled these days to digitally inhabit someone else’s point of view. “If phone says I can, then I should,” is the mantra.

People vastly overestimate how much “mental bandwidth” they’re capable of sustaining. And in the case of TGA, they’re overextending themselves and losing their memories in the process.

Not to mention their wallets. Taylor Swift tickets ain’t cheap. At her last U.S. stop at SoFi stadium some tickets were going into the five digits, with the cheapest in the nose bleed sections as much as $700 or more. A hefty price for what turned out to be, well, a forgettable experience.

Ms. Taylor Swift could do her devoted fans a big favor by telling them to put away the phones during the concert. At least for a little while. That is, unless she wants to be forgotten.

Thanks for reading. I’m also a novelist. You can check my books out here.

Dean Brooks

Tag: pop music

Taylor Swift is Giving Her Fans Amnesia