Taylor Swift was the highest earning musician of 2015 even though she did not sell the most records.
Taylor raked in $73.5M (£50.8million) thanks to her 1989 World Tour, which earned her $61.7M (£42.2million).
Billboard, which compiled the figures, said that they showed how important touring has become to musicians instead of selling music.
Adele sold the most albums in 2015 yet was only in ninth place with $20.5M (£14.9million), of which $16.3M (£11.2million) was album sales and nothing was from touring.
Billboard used data from US sales and tours only to calculate its numbers.
In second place on the list was country star Kenny Chesney with $39.8M (£27.5million) in earnings followed by the
Rolling Stones on $39.6M (£27.4million), the bulk of which was from touring.
In fourth was Billy Joel on $31.7 (£21.9million) followed by One Direction on $24.2 (£16.7million) and then The Grateful Dead on $23.8 (£16.4million).
In seventh was country star Luke Bryan on $23.1 (£15.9million), in eighth was U2 on $21.8 (£15million) followed by Adele with $20.5 (£14.9million) and then Maroon 5 on $19.2 (£13.2million).
Miss Swift has already been voted one of the most powerful women in the world by Forbes magazine.
She was chosen because she is a master of social media with 76million followers on Twitter.
Taylor also stood up to online music streaming service Spotify by refusing to let it play 1989, and pulling her entire back catalogue.
The bold move meant that 1989 had the biggest first week sales of any album in 12 years and was the top selling album of 2014.
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