Spin And (Bank)Roll

Though everyone still talks about the bang-up job you did on the 1’s and 2’s at Seth’s Bar Mitzvah back in ’95 (you turned that mutha out, no doubt), much to your dismay, and your parents’ delight, you switched career paths into something you both thought would be more lucrative. Whoops. Turns out DJ’ing can bring quite the hefty bankroll with it, as Forbes has just released a list of the World’s Highest-Paid DJs—and combined, they make more than the entire roster of the LA Lakers: $125 million smackeroos. Dutch DJ Tiesto leads the spinning pack, pulling in $22 million a year, and according to concert data provider Pollstar, he averages a nightly gross of $250k. That’s a lot of Gelt.

Others on the list include Skrillex ($15 mil), Swedish House Mafia ($14 mil), Deadmau5 ($11.5 mil), David Guetta ($13.5 mil), and—brace yourself—Jersey Shore’s own Triceratops, DJ Pauly D. So why all the sudden love for Electronic Dance Music aka, EDM? Experts say social media has had a lot to do with it, creating more exposure and love for EDM, and music festivals like Coachella have proved to be enormously successful, with live DJ sets going from being the sideshow to the main event in recent years. Even Vegas mogul Steve Wynn is getting in on the action, wisely signing Tiesto, Skrillex and David Guetta on to residencies at his properties. Perhaps it’s time to dust off your mix tapes and bust out your wheels of steel once again. If Pauly D can still DJ under all those hair spray fumes, surely you can give him a run for his money.