The comparison between 2011 and 2012 for Adele is amazing.

Also amazing to see Leona Lewis joint second despite many writing her off. Also Joss Stone I hadn't heard from her in a while!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...just-year.html

joss stone was on the list last year though, leona is richer than many people think.

interesting to see the jls boys there though, i guess the touring has paid off.

I don't believe Cheryl Cole only has 12m. That number has been static for 2-3 years now. I also doubt JLS and the other Girls Aloud members have that much,

I agree. i find it hard to believe she has 12 million. Her albums are not huge sellers around the world, she doesn't tour, i doubt she makes much from Girls Aloud royalties and she doesn't do X Factor anymore. All she does is the odd photoshoot and the hair endorsements.

Have to take these lists with a bucket of salt considering the likes of Lily Allen (amongst others) laugh off the claimed wealth they supposedly have.

Makes sense. The people creating these lists probably won't know what the terms of their record deals are, or details of other contracts, agreements with management etc. It's seemingly based on what theoretically they could have earned.

This is true. The GA girls will certainly have £5m each, if they didn't there's a big problem. Adele surely has more than £20m. Her sales were massive and she was a co-writer, and wrote a lot of 19 alone, which has has massive sales increases, of around 4.5m. Also, she might not have even been paid yet. It depends on her contract, she might get a lot when the album campaign ends, which I bet is true.

Adele will never be in the Beyonce/Gaga etc league money wise because she doesn't do huge World tours or product endorsements. I'm sure she is glad she's effectively set up financially for life but I genuinely do believe her when she claims money isn't her god.

Yup.

I would have thought Adele would have earned more, too. Then again, we don't really have anyone to reference her against because when artists blow up, they tend to tour etc. which obviously doubles/triples their earnings.

Still, find it hard to believe that she's only earned £14 million this year. She'd have to be earning less than a £1 per album on royalties and f*ck all on single sales/plays for that to be right?

It baffles me how someone like Cheryl Cole isn't as rich as Adele! Obviously Adele has had two successful albums and huge sales for 21, but surely Cheryl's earned some big cash throughout her career?

Firstly her Girls Aloud career was very successful, successful arena tours, very decent sales, more than a few hits. Then her solo career which was also very successful, and her years on Then X Factor and then all the endorsements etc she's done? Adele's had huge success but no massive arena tours or endorsements. Not to say Adele doesn't deserve it, I like Adele better than Cheryl it just baffles me.

doesnt it take a long time for songwriters to receieve their royalties though? I read that somewhere

also it's obvious alot of people on this "musicians" list have actually made their money through endorsements rather than music. so it's glad to see Adele at top

I question how accurate this is though. Leona Lewis apparently gets between £500k - £1m for private gigs, and she's been in the UAE playing for all the billionaires alot this past year or two. Also saying each of Girls Aloud are worth the same this year as they were last year? When Kimberley has taken on about 4 or 5 endorsement deals, as well as 8 months of doing Shrek? Hmm.

I thought that at first but then remembered this is an estimated figure after income tax and for this amount for adele would be about 45-50%.

It's all about the songwriting, I suspect. Plus Adele has sold approx 65 million records (albums and singles) in her career so far so I'm actually surprised she's not way more ahead of Cheryl. Certainly if this list was based solely on music-related income the gap would be much bigger.

Totally forgot about tax. Whoops.

She won't pay 50% now, will she? Haven''t this Govt have scrapped it and taken some money off the pensioners instead? And if she pays 50% on her earnings she really needs to get new accountants, lol.

Adele's wealth will keep jumping up every year as her royalties will keep rolling in. The album is still selling by the bucket loads with no end in sight. Not surprised to see JLS on there they have sold out arena shows after arena shows and are definitely one of the three most successful acts to emerge from the X-Factor right along with Leona and One Direction.

for every pound you earn over £150,000 you have to pay 50% income tax, they're changing it to 45% soon. So for Adele, she probably would've been mostly in the 50% bracket.

most artists who sell millions open up a company, and have the money paid into it. they become the company's director.

then pay themselves a salary out of it. if the money went direct to the artist, they'd pay higher tax.

example, The Saturdays opened a company Day And Night (http://www.duedil.com/company/073532...ntures-limited)

so the artists dont have all the money sitting in their personal banks paying tax on it, it's sitting in their company

As do politicians and Radio 1 DJs

That's true, every artist these days puts their earnings through companies. It's usual to have 2 companies, a touring company and then a royalty one.

Why the sad face?

She's made more money in a year than most people will earn in a lifetime. And instead of being grateful for it, all the miserable lump can do is whine about tax.

Who doesn't moan about Tax though?

The fact she is in the public eye and openly moaned about it (a year ago i will also add) people still are holding it against her.

She toured, but getting ill stopped that, and so it caused problems.

She must have way more than that, she's an artist and a songwriter. She's sold about 35m records minimum in 2011 alone. But it'll come in for her when it's due and she'll be richer than Daniel Radcliffe, and rightly so (the boy is so damn wooden!)

Adele played theatres and small venues though - which was her choice. she could easily have sold out The O2 for a month.

she also sold tickets at cheap prices, and had a huge band.

whereas someone like GaGa toured for 2 years solid, in arenas, charging up for £80 a ticket, selling cheap-quality merchandise at high prices. her new tour she is doing stadiums and has ticket packages so you're paying around £200 just to be allowed to enter the venue an hour before everyone else.

the point being ... yes Adele did tour, but not to the extent she'd have made millions from it.