Jimmy Buffett earned the following mention in Variety's Music Mogul of the Year special. For more, including the cover story on Sean Combs, click here. Before Jimmy Buffett, “rock ’n’ roll” and “leisure” hardly counted as overlapping industries. British rockers might have done photo shoots at their lavish country estates, but publicly, for the most part, the essential rock maxim remained: Never let ’em see you not sweat. But it was Buffett’s genius — as a businessman, if not necessarily an artist —...
Mailboat Records
Jimmy
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“Wasting away” is not an option when you’re arguably music’s most enterprising businessman. On 2018’s Forbes Celebrity 100, Buffett was ranked 47th biggest moneymaker, with an estimated $51 million in earnings. Seeing how his amphitheater dates regularly gross from $850,000 to $1.2 million a night, he could clearly do just fine with no outside businesses. But his Margaritaville Holdings, with some 70 restaurants, bars, hotels and resorts and over-55 communities selling variations on the beach-bum lifestyle, brings in between $1.5 billion and $2 billion annually. He had the rare cloudy day in May, when the musical “Escape to Margaritaville” closed on Broadway after a few short, poorly reviewed months, but the show may find its sea legs as it heads out on a national tour.