Dr Dre has become the highest earning musician of the year according to Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid musicians of 2012.

The rapper, who has been working on the follow-up to 1999's 2001 for an unprecedented time, has scooped up a whopping $110 million in pretax earnings over the year, and no prizes for guessing that his Beats by Dre headphones are at the root of his earning power. The majority of his massive earnings this year come down to the sale of 51% of his Beats company to mobile phone maker HTC, who bought a controlling stake in the business for $300 million earlier this year, around $100 million of which went to Dre.

Whilst Dre taking the top spot may have come as a surprise to some, the rest of the list is even more surprising with a number of musical icons proving that they still have massive earning power despite not maintaining the popularity they once had. Number two in the chart, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, is no exception to this, as he scooped in a massive $80 million this year alone, largely due to his ongoing work with The Wall Live Tour.

Making up the rest of the list was Elton John at number three, whose Vegas residency has proved to be more than worth it, the members of U2 and Take That taking up spaces four and five, whilst Jon Bon Jovi, Britney Spears, Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift taking the list to number eight. Justin Bieber and country star Toby Keith are tied at ten with a still impressive $55 million being taken in by the two over the year.