'The Beatles' Paul McCartney Joins Billionaire Ranks With $1.8 Trillion-Won Fortune, World's No. 3 Richest Musician

Legendary songwriting royalties and music publishing: A musical empire built by a working-class boy

Paul McCartney, 84, an icon of 20th-century popular music and a member of the legendary band The Beatles, has officially joined the billionaire club.

According to Forbes, a U.S. business magazine, CNN and other major news outlets, McCartney’s net worth has been pegged at $1.4 billion (about 1.8726 trillion won). With assets of more than $1 billion, he has officially joined the ranks of billionaires.

With the tally, McCartney has become the world’s third-richest musician, behind hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, Beyoncé’s husband ($2.8 billion), and pop icon Taylor Swift ($2 billion).

Born into an ordinary working-class family in Liverpool, England, McCartney helped rewrite the history of popular music with The Beatles. He built an immense fortune through more than six decades of songwriting and performing, continuing long after the band broke up, as well as through pioneering management of music intellectual property (IP).

Annual music royalties of $10 million combine with a collection of masterpieces

A steady stream of royalties underpins McCartney’s fortune. Royalties from The Beatles catalog alone are estimated to exceed $10 million a year (about 1.34 billion won).

The long-term vision behind MPL Communications, the independent music publisher he founded in 1969, also played a decisive role. Rather than relying solely on his own songs, McCartney secured a steady stream of royalties by acquiring the rights to historic recordings, including scores from Broadway musicals such as 'Grease' and 'Annie,' as well as enduring holiday standards like 'It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas' and 'Baby, It’s Cold Outside.'

His art collection, built over many years, has also helped drive the growth in his assets. He owns numerous major works by 20th-century masters including Pablo Picasso and René Magritte, and analysts say diversifying his portfolio in this way helped him reach a net worth of $1.4 billion.