Raking in millions from royalties every day, Sting is a strong contender for the title of the smartest man in music.
The 72-year-old former frontman of The Police – whose real name is Gordon Sumner – is worth an estimated $550million (£410 million).
In 2015, The Police’s hit 1983 song Every Breath You Take was listed by The Richest as the eighth most profitable song of all time and reportedly earned Sting millions on its own.
The earworm has raked in more than $20.5 million in royalties since its release in the 1980s, with the singer reportedly pocketing a cool $730,000 a year.
But the global success of the song is in part thanks to another famous track – Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs’ 1997 hit, I’ll Be Missing You.
Sting’s solo career has continuously topped off his millions – though he may have had some help from fellow musicians who unlawfully ‘borrowed’ his work
The disgraced rapper did a major re-boot of the track with Faith Evans as a tribute to his late friend and rapper Notorious B.I.G, which only bolstered the song’s popularity.
The song sold seven million records worldwide, spent 11 weeks at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
However, Combs messed up by not clearing the sample beforehand, leading 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 – $730K a year – from Diddy for the use of the song, a fee that will reportedly be paid for the rest of Combs’ life.
But that’s small change in comparison to rapper Juice WRLD’s estate coughing up 85 per cent royalties for another unauthorised Sting sample.
Juice WRLD – who tragically passed away aged 21 in 2019 – sampled the rock legend’s 1993 hit, Shape of My Heart, for his 2018 track, Lucid Dreams.
Lucid Dreams went on to become a chart-topping success, peaking at number 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and has since been streamed more than 2.6 billion times on Spotify, marking the song as one of the most-streamed on the platform.
However, later that year, Juice WRLD’s producer, Nick Mira, called out Sting on X in a since deleted tweet.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (R) messed up by not clearing a sample of Every Breath You Take beforehand, leading to a costly legal settlement with Sting (L)
Juice WRLD – who tragically passed away aged 21 in 2019 – sampled the rock legend’s 1993 hit, Shape of My Heart, for his 2018 track, Lucid Dreams
He wrote: ‘F*** @OfficialSting and his WHOLE team. After taking 85% of Lucid Dreams (for interpolating Shape of My Heart, NOT EVEN sampling) he threatened to take us to court for trying to get any %.’
A day after Nick’s tweet, Juice WRLD – real name Jarad Anthony Higgins – responded by writing that he was satisfied with the impact the song had, and stated that there were more opportunities for money to be made elsewhere.
He penned: ‘Lost millions made millions…the song impacted to many ppl in a good way for me to be upset over it.. there’s always more money to be made and I will make it so.’
After his passing in 2019, Juice WRLD continued to earn a cool $15 million, making him 7th on Forbes’ list of highest-paid deceased celebrities.
With the continuous popularity of the rapper’s posthumous works, Legends Never Die, resulting in billions of streams by October 2022 – the figure Sting reportedly earns from streams alone is $43,000 a day – or $15 million a year.
With the continuous popularity of the rapper’s posthumous works, Legends Never Die – resulting in billions of streams by October 2022 – the figure Sting reportedly earns from streams alone is $43,000 a day – or $15 million a year
Juice WRLD wrote following the dispute that he was satisfied with the impact the song has had, and stated that there were more opportunities for money to be made elsewhere
Despite the legal dispute between the artists, Sting later spoke to Billboard about the song, calling the track a ‘beautiful interpretation that is faithful to the original song’s form.’
He also revealed that the success of the song ‘put my grandkids through college.’
Sting sold his back catalogue of hits to Universal Music Publishing Group for $300million (£221million) in 2022.
The catalogue included songs from his time with The Police as well as music from his solo career, which undoubtedly now contribute to the millions in royalties he already receives.
Meanwhile, Sting teased an upcoming collaboration with hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg as he took to BBC Radio 2 in The Park stage in Preston, Lancashire, earlier this month.
