The first UK musician to reach billionaire status
It’s harder than ever to make money from music. Budding artists are cancelling tour dates due to not being able to fund them, balancing their full-time jobs around gigs and practice sessions, and purchasing merchandise out of their own savings, hoping that they can one day make a living out of their art. This is the reality for most musicians, but there are a select few artists who have not only managed to go full-time with their music but have turned it into millions or even billions of dollars.
Taylor Swift is perhaps the most prominent example of this level of success at the moment. The country singer turned popstar has been earning millions each night of her ‘Eras’ tour, and, according to Forbes, has a net worth of $1.6billion. But she’s not the only artist who has surpassed a billion dollars. Forbes also reported that Jay-Z, Rihanna and Bruce Springsteen are among the billionaire musicians in the United States.
Several artists have achieved this feat in the US music industry, but it’s a different story on the other side of the Atlantic.
Far fewer artists have made that much money. In fact, in the United Kingdom, there is only one artist who has surpassed that threshold, and the answer probably won’t come as a surprise.
Is Paul McCartney a billionaire?
Earlier this year, the former Beatles bassist and songwriter Paul McCartney became the first UK-based musician to earn billionaire status. This was revealed by The Sunday Times in their ‘Rich List’, which ranks the wealthiest people in the country and provides estimates of their worth. Although the list was dominated by business people, a number of musicians made their way onto the list, but only McCartney had a worth of over a billion.
The list ranked Sir Paul and Nancy McCartney in 165th place on the list, estimating their worth at one billion pounds. This makes the former Beatle the first and only musician from the United Kingdom to become a billionaire. Some of the other highest earners include U2, Elton John and Mick Jagger, each taking in hundreds of millions, but none surpassed the billion mark.
It will come as no surprise that McCartney is the first and only musician from the UK to have achieved this feat. As one of the leading songwriters for The Beatles, the Liverpool-born lyricist penned some of the most well-known and well-loved songs of all time, producing music that still resonates with audiences even today. He is one of the most influential figures not just in British music but in music history as a whole.
Following the break-up of The Beatles in 1970, McCartney embarked upon a solo career, creating a beloved James Bond theme, working closely with Wings, and collaborating with new musicians. He headlined the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival just two years ago, bringing around 100,000 people to the stage to watch him perform and proving his continued relevance to this day.
McCartney remains one of the most famous and familiar voices in music. His work in songwriting and studio production continues to influence musicians even today, his records continue to find their way into new collections, and his songs remain on repeat all over the world. It makes sense, then, that McCartney is the only musician from the UK to earn a billion pounds.
