Is EDM Over? Forbes’ Highest Paid DJs Suffer Decline in Earnings for 1st Time EVER

It’s always a good time to be a DJ, but financially, this year hasn’t been quite as good of a time as last year. Okay, so Forbes’ list of “Electronic Cash Kings” are still making bank doing what they love. The surprising part is that for the first time ever, the total earned by the top ten highest paid artists declined compared to the year prior.

The same old, same old DJs were topping the list again with no major upsets. Check out the list of highest paid DJs for the year:

1. Calvin Harris ($63 million)
2. Tiesto ($38 million)
3. David Guetta ($28 million)
4. Zedd ($24.5 million)
5. Steve Aoki ($23.5 million)
6. Diplo ($23 million)
7. Skrillex ($20 million)
8. Kaskade ($19 million)
9. Martin Garrix ($16 million)
10. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike ($15.5 million)

Combined, all these producers earned a whopping $270.5 million. However, that’s not enough to beat 2015’s numbers. In the five years Forbes has been releasing this list, it’s the first time we’ve ever seen a decrease.

Related: Is Diplo a Hypocrite for Collaborating with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike?

However, according to Thump, it was only a 1% decrease, so it may not be the end of the world or even a sign that EDM is losing steam.

Read more to see Steve Aoki’s pessimistic outlook on the fate of EDM: