Despite not having released a studio album since 1995, Queen remain one of the most profitable musical acts in the world.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the global body for recorded music, Queen were the fifth biggest revenue-generating recording artist of 2019, and the sixth biggest in 2018. The group didn’t make the top ten in the 2020 list, topped by Korean boyband, however, according to the Music Business Worldwide website, the most recent annual accounts filed by Queen Productions Ltd - jointly and equally owned by Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and the estate of Freddie Mercury - reveal that the group generated £41.95 million in the 12 months leading up to September 2020, making over £19 million pre-tax.
The band currently have over 37 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Meanwhile, guitarist Brian May says that he feels the presence of his friend and former bandmate Freddie Mercury in his life every day.
Speaking to radio presenter Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits Radio on July 7, the guitarist said that he feels that Mercury will always be part of his life.
“Maybe I'm getting to be an old romantic, but Freddie is in my day every day,” May revealed. “He's always in my thoughts and I can always feel what he'd say in a certain situation, oh what would Freddie think, ah he'd like this, he'd laugh at this or whatever. He's so much part of the legacy we created, that will always be the case.”
“You never finish grieving if you lose a family member, and Freddie was a family member, but you get to the point where you're at peace and you think My God the guy had a great life. We created wonderful stuff together that is still making people happy, and there's an acceptance there and a joy that it all happened. How amazing that it all happened.”
You can watch May’s full interview with Simon Mayo below:
Meanwhile, May has thanked Queen fans for their support, as it appears that the band’s Greatest Hits album is due to top the UK album’s chart again for the first time since 1981. “Unbelievable!” wrote May, joking, “I think you all might need to order a brand new copy of Britain’s biggest selling album of all time!”
