Paul McCartney Officially Becomes The First Musician Billionaire From The UK

The Beatles may be no more, but their royalties are still coming in strong. For 60 years Paul McCartney has managed to stay in the list of the UK’s top earning musicians through his Beatle royalties, but some unexpected twist has actually gotten him out of the millionaires club and into the more fancier billionaire list.

If you’re wondering why Paul McCartney is so wealthy decades after Beatlemania, we have answers.

Beyoncé Helped Paul McCartney Earn More From the Beatles Royalties In This Way

Man, Paul McCartney is loaded. According to the annual report published by The Sunday Times, aptly called The Sunday Times Rich List, McCartney’s net worth is $1.27bn, making him the first British to become a billionaire through music.

Compared to the past year, McCartney’s earnings increased by over $50 million thanks to Beyonce’s cover of his 1968 song ‘Blackbird.’ In addition to this, the Beatles’ lucrative catalogue and his own continued touring, even at 82, helped to get him across the “you’re now a billionaire” line.

Though the Beatles was a four-person band, it was Lennon and Paul McCartney that earned the big money via royalties due to being the band’s songwriting duo.

After the Beatles went their separate ways, Paul McCartney continued to make music with his subsequent band Wings, going on to pen the famous James Bond theme song ‘Live and Let Die.’ After Wings, he decided to stick to a solo career.

How Releasing Beatles’ Compilation Albums Made Paul McCartney That Much Richer

The last time McCartney claimed the highest earning musician spot was in 2022 when his net worth was put at £865 million.

Since then, he’s released two Beatles compilation albums 1962-1966, The Red Album, and 1967-1970, The Blue Album. Both re-releases featured brand new tracks that amounted to a total of 21 songs.

A new song ‘Now and Then’ was released as the Liverpool-formed band’s final song, and guess what?

It topped the charts in the UK, despite being written and sung by John Lennon in the late 1970s, before other band members, including George Harrison, joined in and developed it further.

Thanks to audio restoration technology, the living Beatles Sir Paul and Sir Ringo Starr finished the song decades after the original recording.

Other people who made the rich list includes ‘Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling, who also writes books under the pen name Robert Galbraith. She has an estimated net worth of £945 million and was also mentioned in Sunday Times’ top 30 giving list.

Coming in at the 22nd spot, the Newspaper praised her for donating £17.9m to causes relating to women and children in the past 12 months.

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