Being some of the richest music stars in the world and being incredibly famous tend to go hand in hand, and there are certain performers whose level of fame is simply stratospheric.

You’d expect someone like Sir Paul McCartney to be incredibly wealthy, considering he was in The Beatles of all bands and has enjoyed a very good career even since then.

It’d come as no surprise to know that Madonna would be up there among the richest stars either, but there’s another name among that number that you probably haven’t heard of.

Herb Alpert.

Herp Alpert got rich by making lots of music and some very smart career decisions. (Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for The Music Center)

If you don’t know who he is, he’s one of the wealthiest musicians of all time, has picked up a Tony Award, eight Grammys, and to top it all off, has sold over 72 million records worldwide.

Releasing a grand total of 28 albums, 14 of which went platinum, probably has something to do with his immense fortune.

According to Grey Journal, his net worth is estimated to be somewhere in the region of $850 million (£685 million), some of which comes from his incredibly successful career in jazz music and some of which comes from setting up his own record company.

There’s a hell of a lot of money flowing through the music industry, and if you want a bigger piece of the pie, then you’d best be one of the people responsible for selling the records and not just someone who makes the music that goes on them.

Along with his friend Jerry Moss, Herb Alpert set up A&M Records in 1962 and over the next couple of decades, they signed up a hell of a lot of artists.

In 1977, they even signed up the Sex Pistols in a big stunt outside Buckingham Palace after the band had been dropped by EMI, though the actual paperwork had been done the day before and it was only about a week before A&M dropped the punk band themselves.

The 89-year-old started a record label, and at one point even signed the Sex Pistols. It didn’t last. (Al Pereira/Getty Images)

Even though they sold the record label in 1989 for $500 million (and remember this was back when that was a lot more money), Alpert and Moss still managed it for the next four years and in 1998 sued the buyer PolyGram for breaking an integrity clause which eventually led to a $200 million payout.

So there you go boys and girls, if you want to make it in the music business and amass an incredible amount of wealth, then make like Herb Alpert and release 28 very successful albums while founding a record label that you can then sell for vast amounts.

That ought to be easy, shouldn’t it?