American billionaire Jay-Z remains world's richest musician as Paul McCartney joins billionaire ranks

American rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z remains the world's richest musician with a fortune of $2.8 billion, while former Beatle Paul McCartney has become a billionaire, according to new estimates from Forbes.

McCartney, 84, is worth $1.4 billion, making him the third-richest musician in the world behind Jay-Z and Taylor Swift, who is worth $2 billion. He moves ahead of fellow billionaire musicians Rihanna, Beyoncé and Dr. Dre, each of whom has a fortune of around $1 billion. Bruce Springsteen is worth $1.2 billion.

How McCartney got there

Most of McCartney's fortune comes from his music catalog and publishing rights rather than from touring. In 1969, as the Beatles were breaking up, he set up MPL Communications to manage his solo publishing and master recordings. The company has since bought copyrights from other artists, including songs by Buddy Holly, along with Broadway scores and Christmas standards such as "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." MPL owns thousands of songs and is worth at least $250 million.

McCartney also receives 25% of the earnings of Apple Corps, the Beatles' company, which brings in about $50 million a year from streaming and sales of music and merchandise. He splits that money evenly with Ringo Starr and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison.

He earns about $10 million a year from his Beatles songwriting copyrights, which are valued at $200 million, after fighting for those rights in courts in the U.S. and the U.K. His remaining wealth comes from concerts, property across the U.K. and an art collection that includes works by Pablo Picasso and René Magritte.

He played 79 shows on his Got Back tour between 2022 and 2025 and released the solo album "The Boys of Dungeon Lane" in May.

McCartney has long complained about the Beatles' early business deals. He has described the band's first recording contract as a "slave contract," saying that "no matter how successful we made the company, we didn't get a raise."

Jay-Z's business empire

Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, built his fortune well beyond music. He co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 and later started the entertainment company Roc Nation, which includes a sports agency and has a long-running partnership with the National Football League. He bought and later sold the music streaming service Tidal, and he holds stakes in the Champagne brand Armand de Brignac and the Cognac brand D'Ussé.

Swift's fortune rests largely on her music catalog, which she owns outright. Her Eras Tour was the first concert tour to gross more than $2 billion.

Rihanna's wealth comes mostly from Fenty Beauty, which she co-owns with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, and the lingerie brand Savage X Fenty. Beyoncé's fortune has grown on the back of her Renaissance and Cowboy Carter tours, her music catalog and businesses including the hair care brand Cécred and the whiskey label SirDavis.

Dr. Dre became hip-hop's second billionaire in April, a fortune built on his label Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, the headphone maker he co-founded and sold to Apple Inc. in 2014 for $3 billion in cash and stock. Springsteen's wealth rests largely on the 2021 sale of his music catalog to Sony for $500 million.