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Calvin Harris is the undisputed King of EDM, according to Forbes’ latest report on electronic music’s big earners.

The Scottish producer and disc jockey earned $66 million last year to lead Forbes’ Electronic Cash Kings list for a second successive year, pulling in nearly double the next-highest earner, Frenchman David Guetta ($37 million).

Taylor Swift & Calvin Harris Are the Highest-Paid Celebrity Couple in the World

Harris has clubland at his feet. He’s enjoyed unparalleled success with his own artist albums and singles (his set 18 Months made history when in 2013 it clocked up an eighth U.K. top 10 song), he earns a fortune for his DJ sets, has seven-figure endorsements with the likes of Giorgio Armani and he’s dating one of the world’s biggest pop stars, Taylor Swift.

“The rise of dance music has been astronomical… I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Harris told Forbes.

Rounding out the top five are veteran Dutch trance DJ Tiesto ($36 million), and U.S. EDM practitioners Skrillex and Steve Aoki with $24 million each.

The list illustrates the enormous pulling power DJs have at the top of the EDM pile. The top ten DJs raked in $274 million over the past 12 months, more than double the $116 million total for the top ten in 2012. Though the pace isn’t as fast as it once was. Following a 108% increase from 2012 to 2013, the figure grew 11% from 2013 to 2014, and only 2.5% from 2014 to 2015.

Billboard Money-Makers List: Music's Top Earners of 2014

Part of the reason for this slowdown, notes Forbes, is as the market for EDM acts “become more saturated, fees aren’t rising at the rate they were a few years ago. And many DJs are engaging in a costly arms race to pack their shows with visual effects to distinguish themselves from their rivals. That means the genre whose practitioners need little more than a USB drive and a pair of CDJs now often put 30-40% of their fees toward production.”

Earlier, Harris and Swift topped Forbes' Highest-Paid Celebrity Couples ranking, pulling in $146 million between them last year.

you can email HillaryClinton and tell her about income inequality. She'll probably help you.

Obama offered me a free phone..

Trump says "just make sure your father leaves you a huge inheritance".

That was't Obama... it was A.A.R.P.

I do believe it was the Feds that sponsored the phone deal according to this article:


Save on your phone bill using a telephone assistance program.

To help ensure that telephone service is both affordable and available to all Americans, especially lower income telephone customers and anyone who may be facing financial hardships or a crisis, the federal government created a telephone assistance program that is run by individual state governments.

The first component of this program, known as Lifeline, will provide lower income consumers with a discount of up to $15 per month (depending on your state) on the local service portion of your telephone bill. Then, if you select the lowest cost residential service plan that is offered by your local telephone company, that will ensure that those in need have an affordable monthly telephone bill. This assistance program does not provide discounts for long distance charges or special phone features such as Caller ID or Call Waiting. Note that the government Lifeline program will even provide aid for a cell phone as well.

The second component of the government telephone assistance program is Link-up. This will pay for half of the telephone installation charges for someone installing a new telephone service, up to a maximum of $50.00 or so, depending on your state. It will even pay for cell phone service as well. Link-up is but one program offered by many states and local organizations. Find additional government assistance programs.

To further reduce the initial cost to families to establish this new telephone service, consumers that need help can also request to your local telephone company that the balance of the installation charge be divided over a period of several months. So you can pay the initial installation costs over a period of time rather than having it due immediately. Also, in many states you will not be required to pay a deposit if you request "local phone service only" and also request "long distance block" when connecting your service under Link-up. In addition, the Link-Up program will also let consumers borrow up to $200-$300 of setup fees, interest-free, for up to one year time frame, so consumers can technically get a zero percent interest loan to help pay their phone installation bills.

This program was created to ensure that quality telecommunications services are available to low-income customers across the nation. The government wants to help provide them access to telephone service, and even cellular phones, at affordable rates. The Lifeline program is funded by the Universal Service Charge which is billed to all cell phone users across the county.

"Lifeline is a government benefit program that provides discounts on monthly telephone service for eligible low-income subscribers to help ensure they can connect to the nation's communications networks, find jobs, access health care services, connect with family and their children's schools, and call 911 in an emergency. Federal rules prohibit eligible low-income subscribers from receiving more than ONE Lifeline service per household, either wired or wireless but not both."

I think it's a good thing. Of course, some like to make it out to be free iPhones for lazy leeches, which it isn't unless you can find one for $10 a month, cause that's how much they get. Nearly a third are over the age of 55 and more than one-third are disabled. In many parts of the rural America a mobile phone is much cheaper than installing copper anyway. And it's nothing new. The Universal Service Fund has been around since 1934.

It was REAGAN that started the phone plan.

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