Calvin Harris has had quite a year hasn’t he? The guy is in a relationship with none other than Taylor Swift. He’s a Calvin Klein model after transforming his body and face. And he’s also just topped the list of highest earning DJ’s of 2015. The Scottish DJ earned a whopping $66 million. It could very well be the start of Harris and Swift beginning their climb to dethrone Jay Z and Beyonce as being music’s top earning couple.
This is a far cry from decades ago when the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Burren topped the list. Although DJ Tiesto did come on at number 3 this year. Proof that electronic dance music is here in the numbers. When DJs are pulling in this much coin, it’s no longer consider an underground or hobby type thing. The world has embraced this music and is paying for it in droves.
To get some scale on how dominant Harris was this year, he nearly doubled the total of second-ranked David Guetta, who pulled in $37 million. Not bad for a guy who’s roughly a decade removed from being a supermarket stockboy in a remote town in Scotland. “The rise of dance music has been astronomical … I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” he told FORBES.
Harris and Guetta are followed on the list by Tiësto. Though the Dutch DJ is one of the older names on the circuit, he played over 100 dates in our scoring period and out-earned twentysomething whippersnappers from Avicii (No. 6, $19 million) to Zedd (No. 8, $17 million).
Here’s the top 10.
1. Calvin Harris ($66 million)
2. David Guetta ($37 million)
3. Tiësto ($36 million)
4. Skrillex & Steve Aoki ($24 million)
6. Avicii ($19 million)
7. Kaskade ($18 million)
8. Martin Garrix & Zedd ($17 million)
10. Afrojack ($16 million)
11. Deadmau5 & Diplo ($15 million)
