How Much Will Deadmau5 Make In 2012?

"After I saw the article, I called my manager and said, 'Yo, what the f---?"

November 28, 2012 10:10 AM

(Brian Brown Photography for XS Nightclub)

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According to Forbes’ Electronic Cash Kings list, the mou5-headed DJ/producer is pulling in an annual income of a cool $11.5 million while CelebrityNetWorth recently ranked him at #18, banking an even more impressive $12 million on their World’s Richest DJs list.

But according to the Canadian-born dance music producer, his yearly haul is nowhere near the double-digit numbers bandied about by the bean counters.

During an interview at Billboard’s FutureSound Conference, Joel Zimmerman (aka Deadmau5) disputed the Forbes report. He began by issuing a warning that calculating gross ticket and album sales can be very misleading, since the artist only takes home a fraction. “We all know that with bands and musicians and artists, nobody gets gross. If we got gross we’d all own countries,” joked Zimmerman.

So just how much money does Zimmerman make annually?

“After I saw the article, I called my manager and said, ‘Yo, what the f—? I’m $9 million short, dude. We gotta talk!” “If we go through our figures, nobody is making that kind of money.” emphasized Zimmerman.With simple subtraction one can deduct that Zimmerman rakes in somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 million, which sounds surprisingly small considering the endless stacks of licensed Mau5head merchandise lining retails shelves in malls across the country.

– Jay Tilles, CBS Local