Taylor Swift tops Forbes' list of highest paid female artistes

'Wildest Dreams' singer Taylor Swift has topped Forbes' list of highest paid women in music, it was revealed as the annual list came out this week.

Taylor has taken first place with earnings of $170 million, while last year's topper Katy Perry has dropped to sixth place with earnings of just $41 million.

But Taylor is miles (or $$$) ahead of even her closer competitors.

The second spot went to Adele, who earned $80.5 million in the last year. The third, fourth and fifth spots went to Madonna ($76.5 million), Rihanna ($75 million) and Beyonce ($54 million).

The bulk of the artistes earning comes from concert tours.

Taylor's 1989 Tour grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars, Madonna's Rebel Heart tour grossed $170 million and Rihanna and Beyonce also owe their bank balance to successful and lucrative tours, An exception to this is Adele, who earned most of her money through sales of her album 25, the best-selling album of 2015.