[Unconfirmed] Forbes Magazine -7th richest female artist

[Didz-19]

I was browsing through Generasia to check update of artists, and I found this from Ayumi. It makes me wonder, is this even true?

"In August of 2010, the New York Daily News conducted a survey of the 20 richest female singers of all time-based on contracts, tours and inheritance based on lists from Forbes magazine. Hamasaki is the only Asian artist on the list, placing 7th and reportedly having made gains of $400 million (U.S.)."

It this is true, is there any relevant info about this? I've been googling since yesterday to find some more proof about this. Anyone knows?

[truehappiness]

http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/1051801.html

I saw this linked back in 2010 here too...

I'm not sure about how valid this is. I think we debunked it though eventually. So far, I haven't been able to find the original article that the info comes from, just references to the article.

[norwegian blue]

That $400 million number has been mentioned on AHS several times, but there has never been any reliable sources for it.

I googled "ayumi hamasaki net worth", but most of the search results are blogs/random websites. They don't give any sources for their numbers, so they are not very credible sources.

The only somewhat reliable sources for total earnings would be the Forbes rich list for artists/Japan top 50, but she's not mentioned in either of them.
Forbes does estimate her income in 2002 to $9 million though.

Sources:
http://www.forbes.com/japan-billionaires/list/
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0707/094.html

This has also been discussed earlier here:
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15110
http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30019

Originally Posted by nmskalmn

Time again for the Japanese government to release taxpayer info for last year.
In 2004 Ayu paid 137,850,000 yen (US$1,288,800) in taxes. Based on this her income is estimated at 379,290,000 yen (US$3,546,092).
(...)
Ayu's income has decreased significantly from what it was a few years ago:
Ayu's estimated income for 2003: 769,890,000 yen (US$6,694,000)
Ayu's estimated income for 2002: 935,300,000 yen (US$8,060,000)
Ayu's estimated income for 2001: 1,158,000,000 yen (US$9,100,000)
http://www.sanspo.com/geino/top/gt20...005051701.html

Super happy math speculation time:

If we assume that those numbers are correct, that she peaked her earnings in 2001/2002, and earned around 3-4million USD each year afterwards (2004-2013), that gives a total of 50-60 million USD.

We don't know how much she earned in 1998-2000. Probably not that much in 1998/1999, since her only income would be from CD sales. A bit more in 2000, because of the concert tour. So to pull numbers out of nowhere, maybe she earned 10-15 million USD from 1998-2000.
Add that to the total, and get 60-75 million USD.

Conclusion: that 400 million number is probably rubbish.

[pchan1986]

that would be awesome

[anna_ayu]

People, please, you are considering just CDs and DVDs sales... You can´t forget that smart artists invest on other business and savings in banks.

She has the advertising incomes and her shows are full of people. Artist earns money with concerts.

I read that Ayu is a business girl too. She has houses, she write lyrics, so she has copyright, I think she has incomes from Avex (Shareholder), she has her own product line and the Hanabi/a collection that invest in new talents (like Timmy). She has a good patrimony.

[asagarichan]

Not bad!