Formerly Wealthy Musicians Now Just Rich, Thanks To The Craptastic Economy

noah | April 24, 2009 10:30 am

The Times Of London‘s annual Rich List has had the odd effect of proving that stars are, at their core, just like us–because they’ve affected by the global economic meltdown, too. Elton John’s net worth? Down 26%! Tom Jones? Off 24%! In fact, only three music-related entities on the British paper’s Rich List, which ranks the net worths of Britain’s wealthiest people in a 112-page magazine–Simon Cowell, Oasis’ Gallagher brothers, and Mamma Mia! producer Judy Cramer–saw their net worths increase over the past year. Yet none of them made the upper reaches of the chart, so sad. If you feel like stoking your class-consciousness ire, the top 10 musical entities are after the jump. 1 Clive Calder £1,300m 2 Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber £750m 3 Sir Paul McCartney £440m 4 Sir Cameron Mackintosh £350m 5 Simon Fuller £300m 6 Sir Mick Jagger £190m 7 Sting £180m 8 Sir Elton John £175m 8 Keith Richards £175m 10 Olivia and Dhani Harrison £140m 10 Sir Tim Rice £140m The full list comes out Sunday, but if you want a spoiler that doubles as a reminder of the world’s unfairness:

Joining the couple as another new entry on the list is Duffy, the Brit Award winning singer, with an estimated wealth of £4 million.

Of course, she’s not what the people who decide these sorts of things call seriously wealthy–Rich List compiler Philip Beresford, who I hope gets paid at least sorta well so he doesn’t go completely mad–said that “The biggest surprise looking at the whole music sector is the absence of any seriously rich young rock artists,” thanks to record companies wising up and/or running out of money. But it still seems unjust, you know? Music millionaires suffer huge losses in economic turmoil [Times]