Madonna Is Top Music Money Maker

Madonna topped the Billboard Magazine’s Moneymakers list of the top tours in 2008. Madonna raked in more than $242 million for her Sticky & Sweet Tour, which reportedly sold more than 1 million tickets, making it the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist. Madonna was followed by New Jersey’s favorite sons, Bon Jovi ($157 million) and Bruce Springsteen ($156 million), and the final shows by the reunited and now broken-up again Police ($109.9 million), and Celine Dion ($99,171,237). The top five Moneymakers are also the five acts that earned the most on tour, and in the same order, according to Billboard Boxscore.

Among the stats pointed out by Billboard Magazine is that despite easily topping the touring list, Madonna’s Hard Candy was only the 50th best-selling album in the U.S. in 2008, another sign that touring revenue is becoming a larger and larger part of artists’ revenues.