Katy Perry has long been one of the highest-paid women in music and now commands a net worth that will see her become one of the richest self-made women in the US in 2024.
Born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, Perry is renowned as one of the greatest pop stars in the world. Although she started her career when she was still a teenager, Perry shot to fame with the release of her second studio album in 2008 when she was 23 years old.
In between, she released a song “Simple” for the soundtrack to the 2005 romantic drama movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The American singer also joined Mick Jagger as a backing vocalist on the latter’s 2004 song “Old Habits Die Hard.” In 2006, she collaborated with the American Christian nu metal band P.O.D. on “Goodbye for Now” and performed it with the band on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
After signing with Capitol Records in 2007, her talent and the record label’s marketing genius catapulted Perry to global stardom with the release of her debut single, “I Kissed a Girl.”
Ever since, Perry has not looked back. She has won several awards and set both sales and earnings records over the years. Additionally, she has 13 Grammy Award nominations and holds many Guinness World Records.
On the personal front, Perry was married to Russell Brand from 2010 until their divorce in 2012. She got engaged to Orlando Bloom in 2019, three years after they started dating. The couple have a daughter, Daisy.
Katy Perry has released six studio albums to date: Katy Hudson (2001), One of the Boys (2008), Teenage Dream (2010), Prism (2013), Witness (2017) and Smile (2020).
Katy Hudson was a Christian contemporary album released when Perry was still using her father’s last name. Owing to the financial troubles of the music label which released it, the album could not get the publicity it required for a teenage singer’s debut. It was, thus, commercially unsuccessful, selling only a few hundred copies.
Teenage Dream is the most noteworthy of all her albums. In August 2011, “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” became the fifth song from the album to hit No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It made Perry the first female singer and the second artist after Michael Jackson to have five No.1 hits from a single album in Billboard’s 53 years history.
Figures from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) indicate that as of mid-June 2022, the three best-selling albums by Katy Perry are: Teenage Dream (9 million certified units sold), Prism (5 million) and One of the Boys (3 million). Since the figures are from the US market, the worldwide sales are much higher.
While Witness has sold 500,000 certified units till 21 June 2023, Smile wasn’t as big a success compared to the rest of Perry’s studio albums. According to Billboard, MRC Data revealed that the album earned 402,000 equivalent album units in the US through 11 March 2021. Of that number, only 67,000 were in album sales.
In February 2017, Billboard published a report containing the sales figures of 15 of Perry’s songs in the US, according to Nielsen Music. All five of her No.1 songs from Teenage Dream are part of the highest-selling songs. These are:
“Firework” – 7.1 million
“Roar” – 6.4 million
“Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J)” – 6.3 million
“E.T. (feat. Kanye West)” – 5.9 million
“California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg)” – 5.8 million
“Hot ‘N’ Cold” – 5.7 million
“Teenage Dream” – 4.9 million
“I Kissed a Girl” – 4.7 million
“Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” – 3.8 million
“Wide Awake” – 3.5 million
“Part of Me” – 2.9 million
“The One That Got Away” – 2.8 million
“Waking Up in Vegas” – 2.3 million
“Unconditionally” – 1.3 million
“Thinking of You” – 1.1 million
According to RIAA, which follows a different system of unit certification than Nielsen Music, Perry had already delivered three songs with over 10 million in sales and streams in the US by 2017. These are “Roar”, “Dark Horse” and “Firework.” RIAA said in a statement in June 2017 that she is the “first artist in RIAA Gold & Platinum Program history to earn three RIAA Diamond Song Awards.”
“California Gurl (feat. Snoop Dogg)” became her fourth Diamond-certified song on RIAA on 21 June 2023, with sales touching 10 million. As of September 2023, “Firework” remains her highest-selling song with 12 million units followed by “Dark Horse” at 11 million, and “Roar” tying with “California Gurl (feat. Snoop Dogg)” at 10 million.
Katy Perry may have increased her overall net worth by several million with the sale of her music catalogue from 2008 to 2020 to Litmus Music for a reported USD 225 million.
News of the sale was confirmed by Carlyle Group, the owner of the music company, on 18 September 2023, making Perry officially one of the top 10 artists with the most expensive back catalogues.
“The deal covers all five of Perry’s studio albums released for Capitol Records between 2008 and 2020, which include 16 multi-platinum singles,” Carlyle Group said in a statement, without giving any sales figure.
Variety, one of the media houses which pegged the deal at USD 225 million, reported that it includes Perry’s stakes in master recordings and publishing rights for One of the Boys, Smile, Teenage Dream, Prism and Witness. The last three were Perry’s No.1 hits on the Billboard 200 chart.
The five albums feature all of Perry’s nine Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including “Firework,” “Teenage Dream,” “California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg)”, “Part Of Me” and “I Kissed a Girl.”
The masters of all five of the albums will continue to be owned by Universal Music Group. Perry isn’t the sole songwriter of most of her tracks. This means that others have a share in the deal.
Katy Perry charges millions for private performances. It was reported in October 2012 that she charged USD 1.9 million to perform for just 45 minutes at the wedding of model Holly Valance and billionaire real-estate developer Nick Candy in Beverly Hills.
Perry has undertaken numerous tours in her career, earning tens of millions of dollars from almost each of them.
The Hello Katy Tour was the first one she headlined. It was held in 2009, following the success of One of the Boys. Two years later, she went on the road show California Dreams Tour from February 2011 to January 2012. According to Billboard, the tour ended with a total gross of USD 48.8 million and was No.13 on Billboard’s Top 25 Tours of 2011.
In May 2014, she embarked on her third headlining tour – Prismatic World Tour in support of her album Prism. The 126-date tour which began in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and ended in Alajuela, Costa Rica, in October 2015, was a tremendous success.
According to a 2015 report by The Guardian, she earned around USD 2 million per city during the tour. Her earnings, according to concert trade publication Pollstar, were USD 153.3 million through the shows in 2014 and USD 51 million through the remaining dates of 2015, bringing the total to USD 204.3 million.
Perry went on her fourth headlining tour in September 2017 with Witness: The Tour, starting in Montreal, Canada. She played on the tour for 80 dates, ending the tour in Auckland, New Zealand, in August 2018. Forbes reported that she grossed over USD 1 million per night during the tour.
According to Pollstar, her earnings from the tour in 2017 was USD 28.1 million with another USD 55.3 million coming in by the end of the tour in 2018. In all, she earned just north of USD 80 million from her tour alone.
Perry is currently busy with Play, her first concert residency. Held at The Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas since December 2021, the residency has received critical acclaim and pushed Perry’s stature as a performer to even greater heights.
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The first eight shows, comprising the first leg, drew a total of 31,933 fans through 15 January. Six legs have been played to date, with four more planned through November 2023. Reports suggest that Perry has earned around USD 30 million from the first six legs of the residency.
This was besides the USD 2,500 she reportedly charged per person for the meet-and-greet events staged alongside the residency.
One of Katy Perry’s most defining images as an entertainer has been on the small screen, with her appearing as a judge on the music reality TV show American Idol.
After making sporadic appearances on the show between 2009 and 2012, Perry started appearing as an “anchor” judge on the show, starting from the 16th season in 2018. She has since appeared in 102 episodes and will return for the 22nd season in 2024.
Months before the start of the 16th season, TMZ reported in May 2017 that Perry was signed up for USD 25 million per season. It would be later revealed that her pay was more than the combined paychecks of Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, the other two judges on the show.
According to E! News, when she was asked on the 103.5 KTU radio programme about her USD 25 million per season check, Perry said, “I’m really proud that, as a woman, I got paid. And you know why? I got paid like more than like pretty much any guy that’s been on that show. And, by the way, I love men. So I’m a paid woman and I’m ready for a beautiful man.”
Katy Perry’s popularity has led to several major brands signing her up over the years. Chief among them are Adidas, CoverGirl, Walmart, Proactiv, H&M and Pepsi.
Make-up brand CoverGirl signed her in 2013, around the time she released Prism. She launched her own line through the brand in 2016, with the Katy Kat collection featuring 13 highly pigmented lipsticks with a demi-matte finish.
Following her Autumn/Winter 2015 campaign for Italian fashion house Moschino, Perry joined hands with Swedish clothing company H&M in 2015 and appeared in their Christmas campaign of that year.
“H&M was one of the places where I first began cultivating my personal style,” she said at the time, adding, “I have continued to love integrating H&M pieces into my wardrobe throughout the years. One of the reasons I love the holidays is being able to dress cozy and cute, which H&M executes so well for every budget.”
One of her biggest endorsement deals happened in 2011 when German athletic footwear and apparel maker Adidas included her appearance as part of what the brand described as its “biggest marketing campaign.”
After starring in a TV spot and numerous ads for some of Adidas’ selections, Perry joined National Basketball Association (NBA) player Derrick Rose and football legends Lionel Messi and David Beckham for the brand’s USD 100 ClimaCool Seduction sneaker campaign. The ad was praised for its innovativeness and Perry, as she was the only non-athlete in the campaign.
The Pepsi deal is unique as it is apparently in parts. Perry is believed to have first signed a deal with the American carbonated soft drinks maker to promote her concert movie Part of Me 3D in 2012.
A year later, Pepsi announced that it had signed a deal with Perry as well as MTV to support the music icon’s performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Part of the deal included a special promotional activity, featuring two songs from Perry’s then upcoming album Prism.
Commenting on the deals, USA Today reported in October 2013 that Pepsi has no long-term endorsement deals with Perry. The brand, the report said, “has never technically had her under contract, but worked through third parties.”
Technically, therefore, Perry has never been directly a part of the Pepsi brand ambassador list.
Perry launched her own perfume series with Purr in 2010. She followed it up with Meow in 2011 and Killer Queen in 2013. To date, she has released 10 perfumes with the latest being the amber floral fragrance Katy Perry’s Indi Visible.
In 2016, Perry joined hands with Global Brands Group for her own shoe collection. Named Katy Perry Collections, the brand was officially unveiled in August at the Fashion Footwear Association of New York (FFANY) with the Katy Perry Footwear Spring 2017 collection featuring everything, from stilettos to sneakers, priced between USD 59 and USD 299. The collection was made available in department stores and e-commerce sites worldwide, starting in February 2017.
Perry partnered with Morgan McLachlan, the founder and Master Distiller of premium botanic beverages producer AMASS, to enter the wellness drinks market with her own brand of sparkling ready-to-drink non-alcoholic apéritifs. Named De Soi, the drink is made with natural adaptogens and was launched in January 2022 with three types: Golden Hour, Champignon Dreams and Purple Lune, each with different flavours. A fourth type, Très Rosé, was introduced in June 2023.
“As a creative professional and a busy mom, I was searching for a delicious and bubbly ready-to-sip beverage that didn’t get in the way of early mornings and long nights,” Perry said in a statement in 2022.
In August 2022, Forbes reported that De Soi received USD 4 million in seed funding led by early-stage capital investors Willow Growth and Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
“It just means expansion,” Perry told Forbes, “It means the availability to get to more retailers, to have more shelf space, to have more awareness…When you’re building a boutique business that’s now getting bigger – I mean, we’re only seven months into this business. We started in dry January, which is the best launch for any non-alcoholic beverage!”
On the social media side, Perry is the sixth-most-followed human and second-most-followed female celebrity on X (formerly Twitter) with over 107 million followers. On Instagram, she is the 19th most-followed human with 205 million followers. It is likely that she also generates substantial revenue from at least Instagram.
Forbes revealed on 19 September 2023 that the net worth of Katy Perry has skyrocketed to USD 340 million from less than USD 200 million, following the sale of her catalogue.
According to the report, she is now one of the richest self-made women in America and is set to be part of the coveted list in 2024.
Perry was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2015 as the highest-earning musician and third highest-earning entertainer that year with an estimated pre-tax earnings of USD 135 million, more than the combined earnings of Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. It was a record for a female musician at the time before Swift broke it the following year.
In 2018, she was the highest-earning female musician with a pre-tax income of USD 83 million. The following year, Forbes named her the ninth highest-earning musician of the decade, with an estimated income of USD 530 million.
For the rest of the years between 2011 to 2019, Perry was always in the top 10. She was No.3 in 2011 with USD 44 million in earnings, No.5 in 2012 with USD 45 million, No.7 in 2013 with USD 39 million, No.5 in 2014 with USD 40 million, No.6 in 2016 with USD 41 million, No.9 in 2017 with USD 33 million and No.4 in 2019 with USD 57.5 million.
As Forbes noted in its lists, her income is primarily made of earnings from her highly successful tours, music sales and, since 2018, the steady paycheck coming from American Idol. For instance, she earned USD 38.5 million in 2020 alone, much of which was due to her reality TV jobs.
Katy Perry has owned multiple properties both on her own and with Orlando Bloom. Reports suggest that she owned a Beverly Hills mansion worth USD 18 million and currently co-owns a large property in Montecito worth around USD 15 million.
The Beverly Hills mansion came with five bedrooms and 5-6 bathrooms. It has a spectacular infinity pool and green garden in the back along with a sauna, a private gym and a cold plunge pool. A long driveway leads to a parking space fit for 20 cars. It is close to private hiking trails and within walking distance of Franklin Canyon Park.
Perry shared glimpses of the interiors of the mansion while filming for American Idol during the lockdown. Pictures show at least one living room painted completely in navy blue and wooden panelling on the walls.
The 504-square-metre Regency-style mansion, situated on Hidden Valley Road, was sold for USD 18 million in 2022 — the same price at which Perry bought it in 2017.
The Montecito home, on the other hand, is larger. The house is around 666 square metres and sits on 36,000 square metres. It was originally built in 1934 and has six bedrooms with 12 bathrooms. It was bought by the couple in 2020, just before the birth of their daughter. The property has a pool and manicured grounds.
But it is not clear if Perry and Bloom reside in the Montecito house with their daughter. According to an August 2023 report by the Los Angeles Times, the property’s original owner has filed a lawsuit against the business manager of the couple over the sale of the property.
There is little clarity on which of the wheels that Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom have in their garage belong to whom. However, multiple reports indicate that they own at least an Audi S7, a Porsche Cayenne, a Fisker Karma and a Tesla Model S, the last two of which can also be found in the garage of Ashton Kutcher.
They are also believed to be owners of a Ferrari California T, a faster and slightly more powerful version of the Ferrari California.
At least two wheels in their collection are standouts: a vintage Porsche 912 and a superfast Maserati GranCabrio.
The Porsche 912 was a limited-edition sports car produced from 1965 to 1969. It is not clear if the car in the couple’s collection has been upgraded with new features, but the original version came with a 1.6-litre flat-4 engine. It could go up to a maximum speed of around 191 km/h and accelerate from 0 to 96 km/h in 11 seconds.
The Maserati GranCabrio, which is also known as GranTurismo Convertible in the US, is a high-speed convertible sports car with at least four different variants built from 2010 to date. It is not clear which exact variant Perry and Bloom might be having in their collection, but the most recent model, the Maserati GranCabrio MC 20, has a price tag of over USD 300,000 depending on specifications.
It has a 3.0-litre V6 engine with an 8-speed transmission delivering 630hp. The top speed of the car is more than 325 km/h and the acceleration is 0-100 km/h in just 2.9 seconds.
(Hero and Featured images: KATY PERRY/@katyperry/Twitter)
This story first featured on Lifestyle Asia.
Why is Katy Perry so rich?
Katy Perry is extremely rich because of the phenomenal success of her music career, high-earning concerts and long-running appearances on the reality TV show American Idol.
How much did Katy Perry sell her music for?
Katy Perry reportedly sold her music catalogue for USD 225 million.
Why is Katy Perry so famous?
Katy Perry is famous for having a unique influence on pop music with her visually appealing music videos and catchy tracks, nine of which are No.1 hits on Billboard Hot 100.
What is Katy Perry’s net worth?
Katy Perry’s net worth as of September 2023 is around USD 340 million.
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