Coldplay earn $24.7 million touring in 2009 (highest British entry)

U2 have earned the most money in the US for a music act in 2009, according to a report. According to Billboard, the 'Beautiful Day' band made $109m (£71m) from touring, record sales and other royalties - nearly twice more than the next biggest earner. Bruce Springsteen came second to the Irish rockers with $58m (£38m), while Madonna took $47m (£31m), with AC/DC gaining $44m (£29m). Coldplay were the highest-grossing British group, with takings of $27m (£18m). Here is the description of the Coldplay entry:

Coldplay didn't let a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by guitarist Joe Satriani dampen its spirits last year. Despite the legal turmoil (the two parties settled in September and the allegations were dismissed), the band earned $24.7 million touring behind its 2008 album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," which sold 495,000 copies in 2009. Overall, the group sold 852,000 albums in 2009, bringing in $1 million in revenue.

The fourth edition of Billboard's annual countdown of music's highest earners finds wide-eyed youngsters (Kings of Leon, Taylor Swift) rubbing elbows with their well-heeled elders (Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac). As the music industry grows ever more complicated, so does our top-secret* Money Makers formula -- comprising, among other variables, monies earned from CD and digital sales, publishing royalties and all forms of streaming. But one thing remains constant: Touring is the prime fattener of bank accounts, as evidenced most dramatically in the eye-popping, chart-topping tally of high-end road hog U2.

For the first time, Billboard's annual Money Makers ranking, which is the most comprehensive report card of its kind, is based on the artist's share of revenue as opposed to total dollars generated by each artist in the ranking. In compiling these rankings, the editors used proprietary data from the Billboard Boxscore archives (concert grosses), Nielsen SoundScan (sales of physical albums, digital albums and digital tracks), Nielsen BDS (tethered downloads, on-demand streams and noninteractive streaming at Rhapsody, Napster, AOL and Yahoo) and Nielsen RingScan (master ringtone sales), and then applied the corresponding mechanical rates and estimates where necessary for each category to determine the industry's top-earning artists. The ranking covers the one-year period from the first week of 2009 (which ended Jan. 4) through the last tracking week of the calendar year ended Jan. 3. It combines an artist's estimated take from those products with box-office results from concert performances that took place during the calendar year.

Sales data tallies all available titles for each artist during the tracking period. Artists receive 100% credit for sales of a title if credited as the lead artist or as an equally billed lead artist. In calculating an artist's share of revenue from recorded-music sales, Billboard used a royalty rate of 20% for superstars and 16% for newer artists, minus producer fees and the usual packaging and free-goods deductions for CDs. An artist's take of revenue from on-demand streams was calculated based on the average wholesale rate paid to labels, while revenue from non-interactive streams was based on SoundExchange's rate settlement with webcasters. An artist's share of revenue from tethered downloads was calculated on an average-per-download basis. In instances when the artist is a songwriter, Billboard estimated the share of songs written by the artist. CD mechanical royalties for artist/songwriters were calculated by assuming the standard royalty rates. For digital downloads for track, album and ringtone sales, Billboard used the current statutory rates, assuming 12 tracks per album. Billboard also subtracted a 10% manager's fee for each revenue category. For touring revenue, we credited each artist with 34% of gross tour receipts, after the promoter's fee, the artist manager's fee and other costs are subtracted.

More discussion on the money lists and Coldplay's earnings is at the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks mrman78]

New pictures of Coldplay at River Plate stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina (26th February 2010):