Zack O'Malley Greenburg's Blog, page 67

Electronic Cash Kings 2014: Preview And Contest

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Click for full photo gallery: The World's Highest-Paid DJs 2013

Calvin Harris had the best year of his career in 2013, earning $46 million and a spot atop our annual Electronic Cash Kings list after missing the cut entirely in 2012. Will he keep his crown? Can he approach or exceed his gaudy earnings totals going forward? And what about the other multi-millionaire DJs earnings hundreds of thousands of dollars per night?

The answers to those questions and many others will be revealed w...

Jay Z-Beyonce Divorce Rumors Impact On Tour Ticket Prices? Not Much, It Turns Out

Jay Z and Beyoncé have long had the sort of relationship that’s exceedingly rare in the entertainment world: one glorified by the tabloids rather than torn down by them.

Magazines like People have historically been much more interested in gushing over the couple’s daughter than speculating on what’s going on in their relationship; less than a year ago, the Daily Mail wrote about the pair snapping selfies off the Italian coast and didn’t touch the topic of domestic strife.

“It’s the closest thin...

Jay Z And Beyonce’s Ticket Sales Top $100M As Tour Winds Down

On April 3rd, 2008, Jay Z announced a $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation that encompassed touring, recorded music and the creation of his new entertainment company Roc Nation. “I’ve turned into the Rolling Stones of hip-hop,” he told the New York Times.

Jay Z may have been a bit premature in that proclamation, but thanks to what happened the following day—his marriage to Beyoncé—he has made a compelling case. Tonight the pair will wrap up the North American leg of their 19-dat...

Country Cash Kings 2014: Analysis & Aftermath

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A week ago, FORBES released its second annual Country Cash Kings list–and for the second year in a row, Toby Keith was named the genre’s top earner, pulling in $65 million. He did it by becoming the Jay Z of country, boasting his own restaurants, mescal line and record label with a host of his own acts.

“I can put them on that 30-city tour. I don’t have to look for a place to play. It’s cost-effective as crap,” he explained in our...

How Much Will Michael Jackson’s Neverland Fetch On The Open Market?

In 1988, flush with the profits of Thriller, Michael Jackson purchased the Sycamore Valley Ranch for $17.5 million. Today, the Los Olivos, Calif. estate is known to the world as Neverland—and its value has changed even more dramatically than its name.

As FORBES first reported last night, billionaire Tom Barrack’s Colony Capital is preparing to place the 2,700-acre property on sale, six years after it took over a $23 million note on Neverland and became its managing partner. In an interview for...

Michael Jackson’s Neverland Is About To Be Sold

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Click for full photo gallery: Michael Jackson’s Career Earnings, Year-By-Year

Though Michael Jackson moved out of Neverland years before his untimely passing, the 2,700-acre property remains indelibly associated with the King of Pop to this day. Soon, however, the connection will be only in thought, not deed: Neverland is set to be sold.

According to sources familiar with the matter, billionaire Tom Barrack’s Colony Capital is preparing to put the Los Olivos, Calif. property on the ma...

Linkin Park’s Blueprint For Merging Music And Film

Linkin Park’s Joe Hahn was a professional filmmaker long before he was a professional musician, in a way.

In 1996, he started working as a concept artist for a handful of special effects houses. Hahn found that directors and producers would often stop by to ask him and his colleagues how to turn an ambiguous or unimaginative part of a script into an incredible effect that would carry the film forward.

“We would have to … figure out a way to make those words into something,” says Hahn. “That’s w...

The Big Business Of Florida Georgia Line’s Blurred Boundaries

As Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line settle into their dressing room after playing Jimmy Fallon’s show for the third time in 18 months, a minor crisis arises: the bottle of Jack Daniel’s they were hoping to find in their dressing room is missing.

A handler brings them a pair of Guinness Black Lagers instead, and apologizes; they graciously accept. Long-haired Hubbard, 27, wears a sleeveless shirt that reveals a profusion of bicep tattoos; Kelley, 28, sports a denim button-...

Can Kacey Musgraves Become Country’s Katy Perry?

Going to the Grammys for the first time is a milestone for any artist, but few could have had a better debut at music’s biggest night than Kacey Musgraves.

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter was among the surprise stars of the ceremony’s 56th annual iteration, performing her hit “Follow Your Arrow” to a televised crowd of millions and taking home two awards, one for Best Country Song (“Merry Go ‘Round”) and another for Best Country Album (Same Trailer Different Park).

“I can’t put to words how e...

The World’s Highest Paid Country Musicians 2014

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Click for full photo gallery: Country Cash Kings 2014

Country musicians are America’s new rock stars—commercially, at the very least. Of the ten best-selling albums in the U.S. last year, three were country, and only one (Imagine Dragons’ Night Visions) could possibly be classified as rock.

These days, top country acts are even outpacing the biggest names in mainstream pop music. Luke Bryan was the No. 2 best-selling artist of 2013 behind only Justin Timberlake, while Florida Georgia...