DJ YOU’RE A RICH MAN

In case you assumed this purported EDM explosion was a media fabrication or a passing trend, Daft Punk notwithstanding (and to call Random Access Memories an EDM album would be a stretch), take a gander at the second annual list of the genre’s biggest moneymakers, painstakingly compiled by Celebrity Net Worth. Holy Moby, these dudes are raking in the dough at 130 BPM.

As the accompanying text points out, a popular DJ can easily earn $100k for a single night's work, while the upper echelon can earn between $500k and $1 million. Not only do they get paid to do live shows, but they also make fortunes from merch sales, licensing, records and endorsements. Indeed, DJs have become the rock stars of the modern era, with private jets, mansions, groupies and celebrity girlfriends.

Tiesto tops the list for the second year in a row. The Dutch-born DJ had a net worth of $65 million on the inaugural 2012 list and is now sitting on an estimated fortune of $75 million, more than enough to afford that customized Gulfstream. Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are next, with a combined net worth of $120 million. Just out of the Top 20, believe it or not, is Jersey Shore alumnus Pauly D, who has parlayed his reality-show celebrity into an annual income of $11 million per year, half of it from DJing.

To calculate the net worths, Celebrity Net Worth’s researchers took into account all music sales, merch, touring revenue, licensing, endorsements, real estate, royalties, etc. They obtained the info from publicly available sources, promoters, managers, club owners and, in some cases, the artists themselves. They went so far as to take out taxes and various other fees to cover management, agents and legal expenses from the gross figures. Here’s the Top 20; go to the site to check out the entire Top 50.

The 20 Richest Electronic DJs:
1: Tiesto $75 million
2: Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk) $60 million
3: Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk) $60 million
4: Paul Oakenfold $58 million
5: Paul van Dyk $52 million
6: John Digweed $45 million
7: Armin Van Buuren $40 million
8: Judge Jules $42 million
9: Sasha $40 million
10: Pete Tong $32 million
11: Moby $30 million
12: David Guetta $30 million
13: Steve Aoki $28 million
14: Fatboy Slim $23 million
15: The Chemical Brothers $20 million
16: Ferry Corsten $19 million
17: Deadmau5 $18 million
18: Carl Cox $16 million
19: Skrillex $16 million
20: Benny Benassi $15 million