Raking in millions of royalties every day, Sting is a strong contender for the title of the smartest person in music.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the 72-year-old former The Police frontman – whose real name is Gordon Sumner – is worth $550 million (£410 million).
In 2015, The Police’s 1983 hit song Every Breath You Take was listed by The Richest as the eighth most profitable song of all time and reportedly earned Sting millions himself.
Earworm has earned more than $20.5 million in royalties since its release in the 1980s, with the singer reportedly pocketing $730,000 a year.
But the global success of this song is partly thanks to another famous track – Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ 1997 hit, I’ll Be Missing You.
Sting’s solo career has consistently exceeded millions – although he may have had help from other musicians who illegally ‘borrowed’ his work.
The shy rapper did a major re-boot of the track with Faith Evans as a tribute to his late friend and rapper Notorious BIG, 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 screwed up for not clearing the sample earlier, which led to a costly legal settlement with Sting.
In a 2018 interview on The Breakfast Club, the rocker revealed that he received $2,000 a day — $730K a year — from Diddy for the use of the song, a fee that Combs would pay for the rest of his life.
But that’s small change compared to the estate of rapper Juice WRLD coughing up 85 percent of royalties for another unauthorized Sting sample.
Juice WRLD – who tragically died aged 21 in 2019 – sampled the rock legend’s 1993 hit, Shape of My Heart, for his 2018 track, Lucid Dreams.
Lucid Dreams continued to be a chart-topping success, peaking at number 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and has since been streamed over 2.6 billion times on Spotify, marking the song as one of the most streamed on the platform.
However, later that year, Juice WRLD producer Nick Mira mentioned Sting in X in a tweet that has since been deleted.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (R) messed up for not clearing his previous sample of Every Breath You Take, leading to costly legal settlement with Sting (L)
Juice WRLD – who tragically died 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 the WHOLE team. After taking 85% of Lucid Dreams (for Shape of My Heart interpolation, NOT sampling) they threatened to take us to court for trying to get %.’
A day after Nick’s tweet, Juice WRLD – real name Jarad Anthony Higgins – responded by writing that he was satisfied with the impact of the song, and said that there are more opportunities to make money elsewhere.
He wrote: ‘Losing millions who gained millions… the song has affected so many people in a good way for me it’s so tiring..
After his death in 2019, Juice WRLD went on to earn $15 million, making him number 7 on Forbes’ list of highest paid deceased celebrities.
With the continued popularity of the rapper’s posthumous work, Legends Don’t Die, generating billions of streams by October 2022 – Sting’s reported figure from streams alone is $43,000 a day – or $15 million a year.
With the continued popularity of the rapper’s posthumous work, The Legend Will Never Die – generating billions of streams by October 2022 – Sting’s reported figure from streams alone is $43,000 per day – or $15 million a year.
Juice WRLD wrote after the dispute that he was satisfied with the impact of the song, and stated that there are other opportunities for money to be made elsewhere.
Despite the legal dispute between the artists, Sting later told Billboard about the song, calling the track a ‘beautiful interpretation that is faithful to the original song form.’
He also said that the success of the song ‘put my grandchildren through college.’
Sting is selling his hit catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group for $300 million (£221 million) in 2022.
His catalog includes songs from his time with the Police as well as music from his solo career, which now accounts for millions in royalties he has earned.
Meanwhile, Sting teased an upcoming collaboration with hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg when he took to BBC Radio 2 on stage at The Park in Preston, Lancashire, earlier this month.
