Taylor Swift

Hit: Even before she confirmed that another full-length album was in the works, the country pop princess began the year on a very high note indeed, being crowned 2011's highest-earning musician on Billboard's Money Makers list with a $35 million haul in tours, album sales and publishing royalties alone. That's a modest figure, given Swift's overachieving portfolio of commercial endorsements, sponsorships and sync rights. In May, Forbes seconded the distinction by naming the coltish CoverGirl model as the highest-earning celeb under 30, tallying Taylor's year-over-year bounty at $57 million. Those numbers could look modest by the new year: Swift's fourth album, "Red," launched in October with 1.2 million copies sold in its first week -- the best debut in a decade, her second consecutive album to hit platinum in its first week, and noteworthy for both massive digital sales and avoidance of deep discounting to drive units.