How much money has Beethoven made?

[mikebat321]

I know this is a rather untenable question, but do you think it's at all possible to equate how much money Beethoven has made the world over since his death? Do you think it's fair to assume that it's vastly much more than someone like Elvis or Michael Jackson? There's a website called www.celebritynetworth.com, and you can enter anyone you like and get their estimated net worth. I put in Beethoven but nothing of course. They do have deceased famous people though, for instance they put Elvis' net worth at £300million, and Michael Jackson at £600million (although there's another entry that says his music has earned £2billion since his death!). I also realise that the further you go back in time it becomes more complicated as you have to adjust for inflation, I think the most succesful film of all time is still Gone With the Wind, if adjusted for inflation. So do you think it's at all possible to even estimate a figure of Beethoven's earnings thus far, or do you think this is absolutely impossible?

Mike

[klavieronin]

I've wondered that myself but about Mozart. For example, there are currently 6,389 recordings of Mozart's music available on arkivmusic.com, and that's just current recordings, never mind all the ones now out of print. Then there is sheet music, royalties from TV and film use of his music, etc. The problem is figuring out how much of the use of Mozart's or Beethoven's music is affected by the fact that it is in the public domain.

Even still, I think the amount of wealth generated but the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. would at the very least be comparable to, if not dwarf, the worth of Elvis, Michael Jackson, the Beatles, etc. (Although that is purely a guess based on nothing more than intuition. I haven't actually tried to look at any numbers.)

[cuberdrift]

This is not at all a bad topic, but an essential one. As author  E. Yudkowsky says through one of his books - "We must see the forest behind the trees".