One Direction top Billboard's Money-Makers list

One Direction have been named the highest-earning music act of the last year in a new poll created by Billboard.

The British boyband, who are now a four-piece, beat the likes of Paul McCartney, Jay Z and Taylor Swift to the top of the list which tots up the total earnings of music’s richest acts.

Billboard created their list and artists’ estimated earnings by combining money made from sales, streaming, publishing and touring.

Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and the erstwhile Zayn Malik topped the poll with their combined earnings of $46 million.

The biggest earner for the band are their live concerts as their ‘Where We Are’ stadium tour brought in over $40 million. Their music sales amounted to $4.1 million, streaming data earned the group $681.1K and their publishing deal accrued $517k.

Katy Perry came in second with 2014 earnings of $30.1 million. Like the 1D boys, by far the biggest earner for Perry was her ‘Prismatic’ world tour.

Justin Timberlake finished in third place after making $27.9 million last year.

The full Billboard Money-Makers list is as follows:

One Direction $46 million

Katy Perry $30.1 million

Justin Timberlake $27.9 million

Billy Joel $27.2 million

The Eagles $26.2 million

Luke Bryan $25 million

Paul McCartney $23.5 million

George Straight $22.5 million

Jay Z $22 million