Australian veteran rockers AC/DC are still able to pull in the big money and have been ranked number seven in terms of earning power for 2016, Forbes magazine says.

US pop star Taylor Swift, boy band One Direction and British singer Adele are the highest paid musicians in the world this year.

With earnings of $A230 million from touring, recordings, endorsements and other income, Swift, 26, earned the title of 2016’s highest paid musician.

That compares to AC/DC’s annual income of $A91 million.

Swift pulled in a gross total of more than $270 million on the North American portion of her 1989 world tour.

The Bad Blood singer was followed by One Direction, the English-Irish pop band, which brought in $149 million, grossing $270 million-plus for its recent On The Road Again Tour.

Members of the band include Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and, previously, Zayn Malik.

Ranking third was Hello singer Adele, 28, with $109 million, her highest earnings total yet. Adele, whose album 25 was the biggest seller of 2015, enjoyed continued success with album sales this year and grossed millions per night for her arena shows.

World's highest-paid musicians:

1. Taylor Swift $170M
2. One Direction $110M
3. Adele $80.5M
4. Madonna $76.5Mhttps://t.co/Ox6UGc3V0m pic.twitter.com/fW8pVPAuyD

— Forbes (@Forbes) November 30, 2016

Madonna, whose recent Rebel Heart tour grossed $230 million, was fourth with $104 million, which pushed her career total on the road to $US1.9 billion pretax, according to Forbes.

Rounding out the top 10 were Barbados-born Rihanna, who earned $102 million, country star Garth Brooks ($95 million), the Rolling Stones ($90 million), DJ Calvin Harris ($85 million) and music mogul Diddy ($84 million).

Collectively, the 30 listed musicians earned more than $A2.4 billion this year.

– Melissa Fares