The world’s biggest rock band, U2 launched a massive world tour in 2009 that has brought in more than $311 million in gross box office receipts. Each tour stop brings in $10 million in gross ticket sales. Add in lucrative merchandise sales, heavy radio play and a steady-selling back catalog, and you have the highest-earning band on the planet.

Power Rank	7
Pay	$130.0 mil
Category	Musicians
Pay Rank	3
Web Rank	11
Press Rank	18
TV/Radio Rank	54
Social Rank	28

Elevaton Funds Facebook

It’s a beautiful day at Facebook. Elevation partners has just injected $120 million in venture capital, which will certainly help power-up Zuckerberg’s business … but why did Bono’s firm make this move?Back in November 2009 Elevation slid about $90 million over the negotiation table in exchange for 2.5 million shares in the world’s most popular social networking Web site, and has seen that investment multiply by two and a half times in value. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Elevation has just forked over another $120 million for a further five million shares at the moment—especially given the fact that the economy really seems to be recovering, and Facebook’s success has been continuing onwards and upwards with more users joining every day.