Obviously most DJs aren’t pulling in numbers in the millions, but for mega-stars who are headlining festivals nearly every weekend, it’s not uncommon for a night’s work to be in the tens or hundreds of thousands. According to Forbes, list-topper Tiesto earns about 250,000 dollars per performance. Assuming a three hour set (probably less!), that’s $83,000 an hour! Here’s the complete top 10 list of DJ salaries:
- Tiësto – $22 million
- Skrillex – $15 million
- Swedish House Mafia – $14 million
- David Guetta – $13.5 million
- Steve Aoki – $12 million
- Deadmau5 – $11.5 million
- DJ Pauly D – $11 million
- Kaskade – $10 million
- Afrojack – $9 million
- Avicii – $7 million
More Info:
- Electronic Cash Kings | Forbes Magazine
Some people pay non-talent celebs a boat load of money to pretend to DJ at their parties just because of their name like DJ Paris Hilton?. Never mind those types. Here is a bit more info about that top 10 list: http://approachmag.com/entertainment/the-worlds-top-10-djs/
Skrillex earning more than deadmau5, I call hacks!
Pauly D? That’s a shame! Who the hell is he
Fuckin wack!
fist pumping… 14 million dollars
dropping the bass… 15 million dollars
dating paris hilton… 9 million dollars
learning how to Dj… priceless
Pauly D is probably the only one djing there while everybody else is just hitting play like Deadmua5.
Deadmau5 does more than push play he has several feeds of music playing at once to create remixes practically. If he can do that on the fly thats amazing. Now tiesto still mixes from what I’ve heard and I know kaskade is. Now I can’t really defend skrillex other than say atleast he isnt lying about it.
skrillex plays on cdj’s now.
but he sucks now. When he used ableton he sounded great (for the most part.. He still needed a crossfader) but now he’s sponsored by beats™ and does basic mixing with shaky beat-matching at best..
He uses Ableton….it’s pre set and impossible to mess up. Seriously.
And no it’s not at random or created on the fly. Everything is timed to change automatically because the lighting and pyros are on a timed program receiving midi from the Ableton he’s using. If he improvises it will mess up the show.
obvious troll is obvious..
lol…..funny comments….is Pauly D bad?…
So bad.
Pauly D earning more than Kaskade…. what a disgrace!
seriously
thats because the entire cast of jersey shore gets paid 11 million a year each… lol just like any reality tv star on mtv its not for his talent that hes getting paid 11 million dollars lol
But think about it 11 MILLION DOLLARS?! If you where a half ass DJ would you still take the money?
I mean not really Pauly D was “Pauly D” before Jersey Shore, its one of the reasons MTV scooped him up because he was a big name DJ in the area. He also is a pretty good DJ from his live performances i see online.
I think this article is bogus. There’s no way they are all making that much just from djing alone. It goes to show you how stupid people are, because most of these so-called “dj’s” are complete bullshit artists.
the article, sats that Forbes also considers, endorsements and merch…what is bogus is that millions of people are actually willing to pay for all that garbage.
“This is a world where good men are murdered in their prime and mediocre hacks thrive and proliferate.”
— Bill Hicks
i would definitely agree with that! now let’s try to change things by having a bunch of truly talented DJs, constrollerists and performing artists for a united front of “good music and real performance”. how about that?
before you can sell, you have to sell out, lock stock and soul
too right !!
Now lets really break this down. How many of those are actually DJ’s.
50% of that list play just their own compositions, which makes them performing artists.
That makes a big difference between people paying big bucks to see someone play other people’s music or wanting to hear their favorite composer in the highest audio quality possible.
Before you start; yes I know some of these artists dump their tracks down on to a CD. But others are trying everything to give you the sound they hear in the studio, live.
not sure what’s worse, the fact they believe they are worth that much or the fact that the market values them as such.
I think it was John Digweed who said “The music is always played for free, I will always love playing great music to friends. You are paying for the inconvenience of travel.”
True that.
Love that!
Pauly D… 11 million… really now. 😐
Well nobody said they had to be good DJ’s lol.
Just threw up my mouth a little…
<— just lost a little more faith in humanity….