Raking in millions in royalties every day, Sting is a strong contender for the title of the smartest man in music.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the 72-year-old former Police frontman, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, is worth a staggering $550m (£410m).
In 2015, The Police’s 1983 hit song Every Breath You Take was included on the list The richest as the eighth highest-grossing song of all time and reportedly earned Sting millions on its own.
The song has grossed more than $20.5 million in royalties since its release in the 1980s, with the singer reportedly pocketing around $730,000 a year.
But the song’s worldwide success is partly due to another famous track: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ 1997 hit, I’ll Be Missing You.
Sting’s solo career has continually grossed over 100 million, although he may have received help from other musicians who “borrowed” his work illegally.
The disgraced rapper did a new version of the song with Faith Evans as a tribute to his late friend and rapper Notorious BIG, which only reinforced the song’s popularity.
The song sold seven million records worldwide. It spent 11 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
However, Combs made a mistake by not authorizing the sample beforehand, which led to a costly legal settlement with Sting.
In a 2018 interview on The Breakfast Club, the rocker revealed that he receives $2,000 a day – $730,000 a year – from Diddy for use of the song, a fee that will reportedly be paid for the rest of Combs’ life.
But that’s small change compared to the fact that rapper Juice WRLD’s estate is paying 85 percent of royalties on another unauthorized Sting sample.
Juice WRLD, who tragically passed away at age 21 in 2019, sampled the rock legend’s 1993 hit, Shape of My Heart, for his 2018 song, Lucid Dreams.
Lucid Dreams became a chart-topping hit, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and has since been streamed over 2.6 billion times on Spotify, making the song one of the most streamed on the platform.
However, later that year, Juice WRLD’s producer Nick Mira criticized Sting on X in a tweet that was later deleted.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (right) made a mistake by not obtaining a sample of Every Breath You Take beforehand, leading to a costly legal settlement with Sting (left)
Juice WRLD, who tragically passed away at age 21 in 2019, sampled the rock legend’s 1993 hit, Shape of My Heart, for his 2018 song, Lucid Dreams.
He wrote: ‘Fuck @OfficialSting and his ENTIRE team. After taking 85% of Lucid Dreams (for interpolating Shape of My Heart, NOT EVEN sampling it), he threatened to take us to court for trying to get any percentage.’
A day after Nick’s tweet, Juice WRLD (real name Jarad Anthony Higgins) responded by writing that he was pleased with the impact the song had and claimed there were more opportunities to make money elsewhere.
He wrote: ‘I lost millions and made millions… the song impacted a lot of people in a good way, that’s why I’m upset about it… there’s always more money to be made and I’ll do it that way.’
Following his passing in 2019, Juice WRLD continued to earn $15 million, making him seventh on Forbes’ list of highest-paid deceased celebrities.
With the continued popularity of the rapper’s posthumous work, Legends Never Die, resulting in billions of streams by October 2022, the figure Sting reportedly earns from streams alone is $43,000 per day, or $15 million per year.
With the continued popularity of the rapper’s posthumous work, Legends Never Die, resulting in billions of streams by October 2022, the figure Sting reportedly earns from streams alone is $43,000 per day, or $15 million per year.
Juice WRLD wrote after the dispute that he was pleased with the impact the song had and claimed there were more opportunities to make money elsewhere.
Despite the legal dispute between the artists, Sting later spoke with Billboard about the song, calling the track a ‘beautiful rendition that is true to the form of the original song.’
He also revealed that the song’s success “made it possible for my grandchildren to go to college.”
Sting sold his back catalogue of hits to Universal Music Publishing Group for $300m (£221m) in 2022.
The catalogue included songs from his time with The Police as well as music from his solo career, which no doubt now contribute to the millions in royalties he already receives.
Meanwhile, Sting teased an upcoming collaboration with hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg when he appeared on BBC Radio 2’s The Park stage in Preston, Lancashire, earlier this month.
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