Back in June we published a list of the 30 richest DJs in the world, according to the highly questionable lifetime gross rankings of Celebritynetworth.com. Now we have a ranking of top EDM acts that to actually trust. Back in the beginning of August, Forbes Magazine released a list of world's highest paid DJs. In of itself, the list a testament to EDM's explosive growth in the past two years and how the genre has become a cash cow for the concert industry. Consider this: According to Forbes, the world’s ten highest-paid DJs pulled in $125 million -- more than the payroll of the Los Angeles Lakers -- over the past 12 months. I'm not going to spoil the list, but the top grossing DJ brings in $250,000 a gig. The Top 10 below.
10. Avicii ($7 Million)
9. Afrojack ($9 Million)
8. Kaskade ($10 Million)
7. DJ Pauly D ($11 Million.... ugh. Just read Forbes justifications for including him)
6. deadmau5 ($11.5 million)
5. Steve Aoki ($12 Million)
4. David Guetta ($13.5 Million)
3. Swedish House Mafia ($14 Million)
2. Skrillex ($15 Million)
1. Tiësto ($22 Million)
That's a lot of scratch. The $100 million question: Is it sustainable? Will the concert industry's EDM industrial complex eventually become too top heavy from over reliance on these 10 names and just collapse on itself in five years? Will the public get sick of EDM festivals that more-or-less boast the exact same line-up? Will new concert-going novelty emerge? If so, what do you think it is?
