Lou Reed – $15 million
As the lead singer and songwriter of The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed cemented his status in the music industry. In those days, the musical act was not all that successful in terms of commercial sales. Despite this, it has since become known as an iconic underground alt-rock band. In 1970, he left Velvet Underground and released twenty records as a solo artist. Even though the second and third ones did well, his career went through a lot of ups and downs. We are glad that his later records did very well.