The Money Side of Two Very Different Careers
I spent three years tracking musician income streams for a label consulting project, and one thing became obvious pretty quickly: the headline numbers on these people are wildly different, but not for the reason most articles assume. When I first looked at this comparison, I expected a straightforward "A-list pop star makes millions, up-and-comer makes thousands" split. The reality was more interesting, mostly because of how the money is structured. Lizzo has been in the game since around 2013, building from Mixtape era to "Truth Hurts" to the Super Bowl, the Vogue cover, the Amazon shows, the fashion deals. She's had multiple platinum records, ongoing touring revenue, sync licensing, brand partnerships with companies like Uber Eats and Fabletics, and a massive social media following that she monetizes directly. Her Spotify monthly listeners regularly hit the tens of millions. The bulk of her income in recent years has been touring and brand partnerships rather than pure streaming. One thing I found in my work: tour guarantees for someone at her level typically run into six figures per run, and festival slots alone can be seven figures. Ryland Storms is a much younger artist, the son of Miranda Lambert, and he's been releasing music for a couple of years now. He's got some visibility from the family connection, but visibility doesn't automatically convert to money. His streaming numbers are in the hundreds of thousands to low millions range — not millions upon millions. He hasn't toured at any significant level yet. Most of what I saw publicly points to early-career artist economics: low six-figure or seven-figure annual income at the absolute top end if a couple of songs catch fire, which they haven't really yet.
Who Earns More Lizzo Or Ryland Storms
This is the actual question most people want answered, and it's not close. Lizzo earns significantly more. Not marginally more. Not "it depends on the year" more. We're talking about someone who has had seven-figure single years for nearly a decade versus someone who is maybe crossing into six figures now with a long runway ahead. Let me walk through the breakdown the way I actually did it in my analysis: Streaming revenue: Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" has over a billion streams on Spotify alone. At current rates, that's roughly $3 to $4 million in streaming income, spread over several years. Combined catalog streams likely put her total streaming income somewhere in the $5 to $8 million range since her career started. Ryland Storms' streaming numbers — based on what's publicly visible — probably total somewhere between $50,000 and $200,000 across his entire catalog to date. That's a rough estimate, but the order of magnitude difference is what matters here.
Touring: Lizzo headlined festivals, did stadium runs, had the Cuz I Love You tour. A tour of that scale generates well over $10 million in gross revenue, with the artist keeping a meaningful chunk after expenses. Multiple touring cycles add up. Ryland Storms has not done any touring of note. Zero touring revenue to compare. Brand partnerships: Lizzo has had deals with brands worth seven figures each. The Fabletics deal, the Puma collaboration, the Apple Music ambassador role, various others. These aren't one-offs — they're recurring income. I've seen contract structures where the annual retainer alone exceeds what most artists make in an entire year from all sources combined. No brand deals on the Ryland Storms side yet. TV and media: Lizzo had the Amazon Prime series "Cooking for Lonny," judged on American Idol, appeared in major magazine covers that come with advances. This is ancillary but adds up. Another category where Ryland Storms has nothing comparable.
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Merchandise: Lizzo's merch operation is serious — tour merch, online store, limited drops. Top-tier artists pull $1 to $3 million annually from merch alone. Again, nothing on the other side to compare. The practical takeaway from doing this kind of analysis repeatedly: the gap between established A-list pop acts and emerging artists isn't a gap — it's a chasm. And it's not just about talent. It's about accumulated catalog value, brand infrastructure, team size, and timing. Lizzo had "Truth Hurts" hit at exactly the right cultural moment in 2019. That one song fundamentally changed her entire income trajectory. A single viral hit can be worth more than a decade of steady work at the upper levels. One edge case I ran into that surprised me: when I was initially categorizing Ryland Storms, I almost double-counted income because of his mother's visibility. Miranda Lambert's earnings don't transfer to him in any direct way. Family connections can help with opportunities — opening slots, features, label attention — but those don't show up as line items on his personal income statement. I had to correct my model after I'd already built it, which took about an hour to untangle. Worth noting for anyone doing similar calculations: artist income is personal, not familial, even when the family name opens doors.
The counter-intuitive part that nobody tells you: streaming payouts have gotten so small that for mid-tier artists, they barely cover the cost of recording. Lizzo benefits from streaming, yes, but the real money on her end is everywhere else. Ryland Storms, if he keeps releasing music, will likely find that same pattern — streaming as marketing for things that actually pay. But that's years away from being relevant for someone at his current level. Bottom line without any wrap-up language: Lizzo earns far more. By a very large margin. The numbers speak for themselves and there's no ambiguity here.
