Rocker rakes in $132.8 million in album and ticket sales, By
RANDY LEWIS,
Los Angeles Times
Bruce Springsteen, thanks chiefly to the top-grossing concert tour of 2003,
edged out rapper 50 Cent to top the seventh annual Ultimate Top 10, a list that
combines album and concert ticket sales to show which artists U.S. pop fans
spent the most money on.
Springsteen's sales totaled $132.8 million in 2003, the lion's share of that
from ticket sales for the year's highest-grossing North American concert tour
($115.9 million), according to the concert industry-tracking magazine Pollstar.
He didn't have a new studio album during 2003, but a new career retrospective
album and his older CDs sold 1.3 million copies. At an average retail price of
$13, that translated into $16.9 million at the cash register.
50 Cent, on the other hand, topped the Nielsen SoundScan year-end list of the
bestselling albums with his "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " collection, which sold
more than 6.5 million copies during 2003. Combined with other releases, he
generated almost $96.2 million from album sales; adding $28.8 million in concert
ticket revenue brings his total to $125 million.
That disparity between album sales and concert ticket revenue, echoed
throughout the list, continues the schism between veterans who dominate the
concert business and the younger acts that sell the most albums each year.
This year's list:
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, $132.8 million.
50 Cent, $125 million.
Celine Dion, $119.5 million. Dion added $39 million in album sales to the $80.5 million
in ticket revenue generated at her new concert home at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Average ticket price: $135.81.
Toby Keith, $106.6 million. The rowdy country singer-songwriter combined album sales of
$62.4 million and concert ticket revenue of $44.2 million. Average ticket price: $37.95.
Dixie Chicks, $100.8 million. The feisty trio sold $40.3 million worth of albums and
an additional $60.5 million in concert tickets - the highest-grossing country music tour ever.
Average ticket price: $56.
Cher, $99.4 million. Cher's farewell tour generated big box office (again), to the tune
of $68.2 million in 2003. A career retrospective, "The Very Best of Cher," helped her move
$31.2 million worth of albums. Average ticket price: $65.91.
Fleetwood Mac, $92.4 million. A national tour produced $69 million in ticket sales, which
also spurred album sales of $23.4 million for the year. Average ticket price: $83.
The Eagles, $88.8 million. The Southern California band sold 1.5 million albums ($19.5
million) and $69.3 million worth of concert tickets last year. Average ticket price: $107.57.
Simon & Garfunkel, $76.2 million. The duo reunited one more time for a tour that took
in $64.5 million, and a new compilation album, "The Essential Simon & Garfunkel," helped
the old friends sell nearly 1 million albums. Average ticket price: $136.90.
Norah Jones, $74.9 million. Thanks to her big Grammy win, Jones' album "Come Away With
Me" sold more than 5.1 million copies in 2003, for $66.8 million in sales. She also sold $8.1
million in concert tickets. Average ticket price: $38.63.
From the Jan. 7, 2004 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
