Paul McCartney billionaire net worth Forbes, Digi Mart USA News: Paul McCartney has joined the ranks of the world’s billionaires, according to a new analysis by Forbes. The magazine values the former Beatle’s net worth at $1.4 billion (£1.04 billion), placing him third among the world’s richest musicians behind Jay-Z at $2.8 billion (£2.01 billion) and Taylor Swift at $2 billion (£1.49 billion).
Forbes attributed McCartney’s wealth to his musical catalog, legal maneuvers, tours and art collection. The 84-year-old derives the bulk of his fortune from MPL Communications, the publishing company he founded in 1969 that manages his own catalog and those of other artists.
The company’s acquisition of copyrights from artists such as Buddy Holly, along with Broadway musical scores and Christmas standards such as “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire),” accounts for nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Forbes notes that McCartney earns money every time a high school performs “Grease” or someone streams “Blue Suede Shoes.”
As a former member of the Beatles, McCartney receives 25% of earnings from the band’s Apple Corps holding company, which generates about $50 million (£37.2 million) annually from streaming residuals and sales of vinyl and merchandise. He also makes around $10 million (£7.4 million) per year from the band’s songwriting copyrights, which he fought for in both U.S.
and U.K. courts over the past two decades.
The publication estimates those copyrights are worth $200 million (£148.8 million).
Forbes’s estimates also include revenue from McCartney’s touring, most recently 79 shows for his Got Back tour between 2022 and 2025, as well as real estate around the world and paintings by high-value artists such as Magritte and Picasso.
McCartney remains an active musician in his 80s. His most recent album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, was released this past May.
That month he appeared as the musical guest on the season finale of Saturday Night Live. In July, he performed “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for the first time in 60 years at fellow billionaire Swift’s star-studded wedding to Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden.
McCartney was also the subject this year of Man on the Run, a documentary directed by Morgan Neville about his life after his departure from the Beatles.
