Taylor Swift world’s highest paid celebrity: Forbes

NEW YORK | At the tender age of 26, Taylor Swift is the world’s highest-paid celebrity, pulling in a whopping $170 million over the past year, Forbes magazine said Monday.

The pop diva’s take from June 2015 to June 2016 is the highest total of her young career, the magazine said, more than doubling her previous record of $80 million last year.

She out-earned other famous musicians including Adele ($80.5 million), Madonna ($76.5 million), Rihanna ($75 million) and Bruce Springsteen ($60.5 million).

The “Shake It Off” singer also outpaced rival Katy Perry who was last year’s top-earning musician at $135 million, according to Forbes magazine’s annual list of 100 highest-paid celebrities.

Perry dropped to number 63 on this year’s list, earning a mere $41 million.

Swift’s huge earnings were largely thanks to her “1989 World Tour” during which she smashed the Rolling Stone’s North American record, grossing $200 million on the continent en route to a quarter of a billion worldwide, the magazine said.

Coming in at number two on the list this year was the boy band One Direction, ($110 million), followed by author James Patterson ($95 million).

Taylor’s former beau, musician Calvin Harris, also made the cut coming in at number 21 ($63 million).

“The world’s 100 highest-paid celebrities pulled in $5.1 billion pretax over the past 12 months, more than the GDP of Belize, Gambia and Bhutan combined,” Forbes said.

Magazine editor Zack O’Malley Greenberg said live entertainment continues to be a major cash draw.

“From soccer games in Spain to concerts in China, fans are willing to shell out to see big names – and this is driving the celebrity economy to ever greater heights,” he said in a statement.

On the Hollywood front, Jennifer Lawrence was the industry’s highest-paid actress for the second consecutive year, earning $46 million, a slight drop from the $52 million “The Hunger Games” star banked the year before.

Actor Dwayne Johnson wrestled the highest-paid actor spot from “Iron Man’s” Robert Downey Jr., earning $64.5 million, largely thanks to the billion-dollar “Fast and Furious” franchise and the surprising success of 2015′s “San Andreas” movie.

Many athletes also made the list, including Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo ($88 million), tennis man Roger Federer ($68 million), and German race car driver Sebastian Vettel ($41 million)

source: interaksyon.com

Microsoft plans to launch smartwatch within weeks – Forbes

NEW YORK — Microsoft Corp is preparing to launch a smartwatch within the next few weeks that will passively track a user’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms, Forbes reported on Sunday.

The wearable gadget’s battery life will exceed two days of regular use, Forbes reported, citing unnamed sources close to the project. It will arrive in stores soon after being unveiled in an effort to capture the holiday season, Forbes reported.

Microsoft declined to comment.

Apple Inc unveiled a smartwatch on Sept. 9 that will combine health and fitness tracking with communications and will go on sale in early 2015, while Samsung Electronics Co unveiled its Galaxy Gear smartwatch in September 2013.

source: interaksyon.com

Michael Jackson tops Forbes list of highest-earning dead celebrities

NEW YORK | Five years after his death, singer Michael Jackson is generating a fortune and is the top-earning dead celebrity, raking in an estimated $140 million in the past year for his estate, Forbes said on Wednesday.

He earned more than twice as much as singer Elvis Presley, who died in 1977 and came in second with $55 million, and three times more than cartoonist and Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz, who took third place with $40 million.

“Few celebrities prove the point that there is (financial) life after death better than Michael Jackson,” according to Forbes.

It is Jackson’s second straight year atop the list. He regained the title in 2013, a year after being pushed into second place by actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Jackson’s second album released after his death, “Xscape” debuted at No. 2 on the pop charts in the past year and the singer also appeared as a hologram at the Billboard Music Awards. Two Cirque du Soleil shows, “Immortal” and “One,” account for much of Jackson’s earnings along with his music catalog and publishing empire.

Taylor, who died in 2011, came in at No. 4 with $25 million and reggae singer Bob Marley completed the top five with $20 million in earnings in the year to October 2014. Marley died of cancer at the age of 36 in 1981.

Singer John Lennon, the former Beatle who was gunned down in New York in 1980, was No. 7 with $12 million.

The 13 deceased celebrities included on Forbes list earned a total of $363.5 million.

Forbes compiled the list by talking to estate managers, lawyers and licensors and analyzing estimated posthumous earnings between October 2013-14.

source: interaksyon.com

Lady Gaga is top earning celebrity under 30: Forbes

NEW YORK – Despite hip surgery that forced the cancellation of part of her tour, Lady Gaga still earned an estimated $80 million in the past year, propelling her to the top of Forbes list of highest earning celebrities under 30 years old.

Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber, who made headlines as much for his antics off stage as on, came in a distant second with an estimated income of $58 million. Singer Taylor Swift was third, pulling in $55 million, about $2 million less than last year when she topped the list.

The Forbes website said Lady Gaga, 27, would have earned more had she not had to cancel some 20 U.S. shows starting in February. Gaga announced earlier this month that she will release her next album “ARTPOP” on November 11.

DJ, songwriter and producer Calvin Harris, who played more than 150 shows from June 2012-June 2013 and earned $46 million, was fourth on the list, and Barbados-born pop star Rihanna rounded out the top five with earnings of $43 million.

To compile the ranking Forbes estimated entertainment-related income for the 12 months from June 2012 through June 2013 by talking to agents, managers, producers and executives.

British singer Adele, who won an Oscar for the theme from the James Bond movie “Skyfall,” was seventh on the list with an estimated $25 million.

Along with singers, two actresses also made the top 10. Best actress Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, who wowed audiences and critics for her performance in “Silver Linings Playbook” and also appeared in “The Hunger Games,” earned $26 million, which secured her the No. 8 spot, just ahead of fellow actress Kristen Stewart of “Twilight” fame, who had earnings of $22 million.

source: interaksyon.com

Tiesto leads Forbes list of highest-paid DJs

LOS ANGELES – Electronic dance music DJ Tiesto was named the world’s highest paid DJ on Thursday, in a year when EDM has became a staple sound in mainstream pop music.

Dutch DJ Tiesto, 43, real name Tijs Verwest, earned $22 million in the past year, fueled by headlining sets at this year’s Coachella music festival and an exclusive residency at the Wynn Las Vegas, according to Forbes.com, which compiled the ranking.

Tiesto, 43, has earned a global fan base with his brand of electro house music, and he teamed his 2009 album “Kaleidoscope” with a 15-month, 175 date tour, with many shows sold out.

Los Angeles DJ Skrillex, 24, came second in the ranking with earnings of $15 million. The DJ, real name Sonny Moore, made waves by winning three Grammy awards this year with his debut album “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,” a blend of dubstep, house and electronica.

While the music industry has been suffering from lower sales, EDM has been steadily growing in the past year, with DJs performing more than 100 shows at lower overhead costs than bands or artists on tour.

“What’s fueling the DJ craze is that a lot of artists across all different genres realized they needed to put more effort into live music as it’s so much harder to make money off recorded music,” Forbes staff writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg told Reuters.

“Electronic music is ideally suited for the Internet age, (the DJs) never really charged anything for their music, their model was to give away music for free and make money from live shows, and with Twitter and Facebook, it’s so easy for them to spread their music around for free.”

Forbes.com pulled their earnings estimates from a combination of live shows, music sales, endorsements and merchandise sales figures. The ten highest-paid DJs collectively earned $125 million, more than the entire Los Angeles Lakers basketball team.

“EDM, for corporate America, is safer than hip hop, it’s not controversial, it’s ready to project onto whatever you want, and I think that’s why we’re seeing sponsors flock to it much more quickly than they did with rock and hip hop,” said O’Malley Greenburg.

Swedish House Mafia, the DJ collective formed by Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and Axwell, came in third with $14 million, French DJ David Guetta, 44, notched fourth place with $13.5 million and Southern California DJ Steve Aoki, 34, earned $12 million to round out the top five.

DJ Pauly D, 32, one of the stars of MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” was a surprising entry at No. 7 on the list, earning $11 million in the past year.

Pauly D, real name Paul DelVecchio, used his rising reality star status to propel his music career, opening for Britney Spears at select dates on her 2011 Femme Fatale tour, earning a MTV spin-off show, “The Pauly D Project” this year and establishing a residency at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.

The full list of the world’s top ten highest-paid DJs can be viewed here.

source: interaksyon.com

Kristen Stewart bumps Jolie as highest-paid actress

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kristen Stewart, who shot to fame as Bella Swan in "The Twilight Saga" films and has a starring role in "Snow White and the Huntsman", jumped to the top of Forbes.com's annual list of highest-paid actresses on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old earned an estimated $34.5 million from May 2011 to May 2012 and pushed Angelina Jolie into fourth place.

Cameron Diaz, who had a surprise hit with "Bad Teacher", came in second with $34 million.

"She (Stewart) is an up-and-coming star. She is earning a lot of money from one of the most successful franchises of all time. This is who you would expect to see right now," said Dorothy Pomerantz, Forbes Los Angeles bureau chief.

"This year you are seeing somebody young and at the brink of potentially great stardom sitting on the top of the list."

Forbes.com compiled the list and estimated salaries by talking to agents, managers and lawyers and based earnings on pay, profits, residuals, endorsements and advertising work.

Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock, who largely took a break from filming after 2009's "The Blind Side", came third with $25 million.

Jolie, who topped last year's list along with Sarah Jessica Parker, dropped to the fourth spot with earnings of $20 million while Charlize Theron, Stewart's co-star in "Snow White and the Huntsman" who also appears in "Prometheus", trailed at $18 million, and rounded out the top five places.

Parker, whose 2011 film "I Don't Know How She Does It" brought in a disappointing $30 million at the worldwide box office, slipped to seventh place with a $15 million salary.

"She is almost earning more from her perfume and endorsement deals right now than from entertainment. That is true of a lot of women. They have these outside deals that are very lucrative. Angelina Jolie earns a lot from residuals, as does Sarah Jessica Parker," Pomerantz said.

Former "Friends" star Jennifer Anniston just made the list, earning an $11 million salary.

The top 10 actresses earned a total of $200 million, according to Forbes.com, a lot less than the $361 million total that the 10 highest-earning men made.

"It is nowhere near what men are making," Pomerantz said. "I think it will be a while until women see salary parity, if it ever happens. Women are paid less in every industry, not just in Hollywood."

source: mb.com.ph

Google's ex-CEO gets $101M pay package in new job

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Shifting from Google's CEO to executive chairman proved to be lucrative career move for Eric Schmidt.

Google Inc. awarded Schmidt a compensation package valued at $101 million last year, according to a Friday regulatory filing. The amount is 322 times higher than the $313,219 package that Schmidt received in 2010 during his final full year as the Internet search leader's CEO.

Schmidt, 56, ended a decade-long stint as Google's CEO last April and turned over the job to Google co-founder Larry Page.

Shortly before the change in command, Google gave Schmidt stock and stock options valued at nearly $94 million, according to the company's proxy statement. Google had designed the stock and stock option package to be worth $100 million, but the compensation formula spelled out by securities regulators arrived at a slightly different calculation.

To top it off, Google raised Schmidt's salary from $1 annually as CEO to $1.25 million as executive chairman. His 2011 salary ended up being $937,500 because he spent the first three months of the year in the lower-paying job as CEO.

The rest of Schmidt's 2011 compensation consisted of a $6 million bonus and perks worth nearly $264,000. Schmidt deposited half of his bonus last year in a company plan that can defer payment for up to five years.

Page's compensation package totaled $1 last year, consisting solely of a nominal salary. He has maintained a $1 salary since 2005, although in some years he has accepted the Google's companywide holiday bonus. That's what happened in 2010 when Page's pay package totaled $1,723.

Weekly paychecks, annual bonuses and stock options haven't been essential to Schmidt or Page since Google's initial public offering of stock in August 2004. That IPO turned them, along with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, into multibillionaires who are perennials on Forbes' list of the world's richest people.

Forbes' latest rankings estimate Page, 39, and Brin, 38, are each worth nearly $19 billion. The magazine pegs Schmidt's wealth at nearly $7 billion.

Like Page, Brin limited his pay package last year to $1.

Since Google's IPO, Schmidt's total compensation package as CEO had never exceeded $560,000, based on an analysis of Google's past regulatory filings. From 2004 through 2010, Schmidt's combined compensation totaled $2.2 million.

In his new job as executive chairman, Schmidt serves as a company ambassador who meets with government regulators, explores potential acquisitions and makes public appearances.

In its proxy statement, Google described Schmidt's big stock and stock option package as a way to recognize his accomplishments as CEO. When Schmidt took in job in 2002, Google had annual revenue of $86 million and fewer than 300 employees. In Schmidt's final full year as CEO, Google had grown to a company with $29 billion in revenue and more than 24,000 employees.

Even after last year's big windfall, Schmidt is still raising cash. In February, he filed plans to sell up to 2.4 million shares of stock currently worth about $1.4 billion.

Page and Brin are in the process of selling 5 million Google shares apiece under a program scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Page, Brin and Schmidt have been Google's controlling shareholders since the IPO, thanks to a special class of stock that gives them 10 times the voting power of other shareholders. To ensure they remain in power as Google doles out more stock to pay employees and finance acquisitions, Brin and Page are pursuing a 2-for-1 stock split that will create new class of shares with zero voting power.

The unusual stock split announced last week has been derided by corporate governance experts who oppose disenfranchising other shareholders.

But the proposal is almost certain to be approved at Google's June 21 annual meeting because Page, Brin and Schmidt support it.

Friday's regulatory filing disclosed that the idea for the stock split was first broached in June 2010. Google's board then formed a special committee to analyze the pros and cons. After some haggling with Brin and Page over the limits on their control, the board reached a compromise earlier this month.

source: mb.com.ph