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DEC 23, 2015 @ 02:02 PM 9,950 VIEWS
Four Fearless Music Business Predictions For 2016
Zack O'Malley Greenburg
FORBES STAFF
I cover the business of music, media & entertainment.
Been Around The World: Swift’s 1989 Tour has taken her to most of the continents on the planet–and will boost her into a new stratosphere of earnings. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images).
Around this time last year, I pulled out my crystal ball and made four music business prognostications for 2015–and though my foresight wasn’t quite as sharp as hindsight, it wasn’t too shabby.
I predicted that Ed Sheeran would become the world’s top male pop star (he went on to bank $57.5 million, trailing only Justin Timberlake in that category) and that Justin Bieber’s antics would finally dent his earnings (he missed our Highest-Paid Musicians list for the first time in years). I said the RIAA would change its rules for platinum album certification, and that Adele would release a new album that would go platinum under any definition (not yet, and a resounding yes).
So this year, I’ve dusted off that crystal ball, and I’m going to give it another whirl. Without any further ado, here are four fearless music predictions for 2016:
Taylor Swift will double her past year’s earnings total.
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That would be no small feat: the “Blank Space” singer pulled in $80 million during our latest accounting, but that only covered the first part of her 1989 World Tour. She’s been grossing $4 million per show through dates mostly in North America, Asia and Australia. Expect her to hit South America and more of Europe en route to earnings closer to $200 million than $100 million next year.