Paul McCartney is officially a billionaire according to a new Forbes estimation of his net worth. His wealth is an estimated $1.4 billion, making him the third-richest musician in the world behind Jay Z ($2.8 billion) and Taylor Swift ($2 billion).
As Forbes noted, “McCartney has sung, sued, countersued, toured and toiled his way to a $1.4 billion fortune. But for years he earned far less from The Beatles than you might imagine—and far more from artists you might not expect. It’s a classic story of how art and commerce can come together.”
McCartney’s original record deal with the Beatles alongside John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr was not very lucrative; their publisher owned the copyrights to the band’s lyrics and melodies. “It turned out to be basically a slave contract,” McCartney wrote in 2017, “no matter how successful we made the company, we didn’t get a raise.”
In 1969, the musician launched his own publishing company ahead of his solo career to control his master recordings. McCartney’s company, MPL Communications, also started buying other musicians’ catalogs, Broadway scores, and Christmas songs. McCartney purchased copyrights to Grease, “It’s Beginning to Loo...