Sir Paul McCartney is one of the most celebrated musicians of all time, most notably as 'The Beatles' members. While the glory days with the band brought massive hits, his net worth also accumulated from his tours. Learn all the income sources, album/music sales, tour earnings, properties of McCarthy here.
Sir Paul McCartney is one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. He is one of the two living members of The Beatles, but his recognition is much more than just that. His solo career is also celebrated. The music that he writes and composes is so successful that they still are breaking record sales years after their release.
Born on June 18, 1942 [age 78], he and the three other members started their band in their late teens and suddenly rose to fame by taking home records after records. After the fall of a great empire the friends had built, McCartney pursued a solo career along with projects with the band Wings for one more decade.
Even after not making music as frequently as in the days with The Beatles anymore, his singles and albums were still hitting number one in charts. His net worth has been piling up like that. He didn’t stop touring either, and that’s what really made him a billionaire. Plus, his Beatles song, Yesterday, is the most covered song in the world. Let's just get into his net worth.
Paul McCartney's $1.2 Billion Net Worth May Just Have Made Him the Richest Musician Yet
Different sources will have you think differently about the richest musician in the world, but there are rarely people who make money just from the forms of music, without any brand endorsement of sorts. But Paul McCartney is rising up each year, he’s almost there as the richest musician in the world alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber. His source of income is entirely music — royalties for song plays & covers, award money, song/album release income and massive tour money. Don't get blindsided by Forbes not recording his value. They too reckon he's a billionaire.
As of November 2019, Sir Paul McCartney has a net worth of $1.2 billion. To give you a perspective of how much he earns, his highest-grossing tour was in 2012 which alone hauled in $126 million. His average earnings/salary comes out somewhere around $65 million per year. He’s released 60 gold discs, 39 studio albums (including two solo EPs), and sold over 100 million single songs. He goes to tours every year, taking him to the highest-earning musicians' list each year.
The Kick Starter Career with ‘The Beatles’ That Lasted Less Than a Decade
The Beatles still hold the record for all-time album sales. Even after half a century, their album, White Album, made it to the Billboard Top 10. Many of the songs continue to be hits consistently around the world.
The group was formed in 1960 after McCartney met John Lennon and The Quarry Men when he was 15 and joined the team. Their career actually kicked off in 1962 as The Beatles and immediately start touring while continuously making albums and singles.
The band released 12 studio albums, 13 EPs, 5 live albums and 22 singles (that makes 12 studio albums, five compilation albums and 15 box sets). Every one of them went at least Gold as many of them reached Platinum. He wrote and co-wrote most of the songs with the band. They did a total of seven lead tours while they did two supporting-member tours in their early formative years. 21 of the singles topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart (the most by any band) and they had at least 600 million album sales worldwide and 1.6 billion singles in the US. They won 51 awards, which include 11 Grammy Hall of Fames, with 110 nominations.
The band was doing well and touring all over the world, but a sudden declaration of the band officially breaking up in April 1970 left fans dumbstruck. They were still releasing albums, but they’d stopped touring since 1966 due to concert overcrowding (even in the places they just showed up). There were several controversies along the way and many internal conflicts reported in the band. McCartney, an album, was released by McCartney as his solo project and nothing remained the same with them.
As of now, Ringo Starr is the other member who is still alive. Even if he also gets paid from anything the song of the band makes, the comparison for the net worth between him and McCartney is hardly fair. The latter earns a skyrocketing amount every year. George Harrison and Lennon are both no more.
Solo Career, Alongside 'Wings', Was Really the Best Decision He Made for His Career Net Worth
The period of time with the band, Wings, started and ended with McCartney's solo title albums. During the dissolution of The Beatles, he'd already compiled up McCartney, while McCartney II was released just before he left Wings. There was one album, Ram, that he and his wife released before officially formed the band in 1971 though.
The core of Wings was McCartney, his wife Linda McCartney (née Eastman), or Lady McCartney, and Denny Laine. Throughout the band's existence from 1970 to 1981, other members of the band frequently came and left. But they did enjoy massive commercial success (not much compared to The Beatles though) during their decade long existence.
Wings released seven studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, one video album, 29 singles and 19 music videos. They went on five different tours and took home three awards, three of them were Grammys. The album sales were modest 29.6 million in comparison to the Beatles' years but significant to push up his wealth.
After slow success with Wings, McCartney knew the glory days wouldn't be the same anymore. So after 1982, he only went to concerts and released albums only once every few years. He did drop singles every now and then. After McCartney II, he released 15 studio albums, 6 live albums, 3 compilation albums, 64 singles, 64 music videos, 2 EPs and 2 box sets. Of the countless nominations he had received, he won eight Grammys as a solo artist in total (three were before separation from The Beatles.
Until the 21st century, he did only three solo tours. But after the turn of the millennium, he started traveling and concerting around the world almost every year. There are 13 official solo tours he's done until now, after 2000, the latest one being the Freshen Up tour consisting of 42 total shows from September 2018 and scheduled until June 22, 2020.
How Much He Earns from the Tours and Concerts
The gross revenue he gets for every concert is massive, to say the least. For the fact, we can consider the $4 million per city he received during his 2015-2016 One on One tour.
Driving World Tour (2002) — $126.1 million
The 'US' Tour (2005) — $60 million
Summer Live 'o9 (2009) — $33.65 million
Up and Coming Tour (2010-2011) — $93 million
Out There Tour (2014 part only) — $71 million
Out There Tour (2015 part only) + One on One (2016 part) — $56.5 million
One on One (2017 part) — $54 million
When Linda McCartney Passed Away, She Left Him Her Entire Fortune
Paul and Linda had quite a lot of exciting time during their married life together. Not just in the professional field, but in personal life as well. After a couple of serious girlfriends, McCartney married Linda in 1969, and their collaboration after that is obviously legendary. She helped him quite a lot for his post-Beatles success.
The couple had four children together, Marry, Stella, James and Heather. Heather was legally adopted by Paul after the marriage. They were quite the team, but in 1998, Linda collapsed to breast cancer at 58 years old and left the world. McCartney then was a widower.
The pop legend's net worth was already about $500 million at the time. According to Linds's will, she'd left him the entirety of her fortune of over $200 million (which was, by default, tax-exempted). When the amount accumulated over the years from the tours, he was bound to hit the $1 billion mark.
McCartney remarried to Heather Mills in 2002 and had a daughter, Beatrice Milly, the next year before separating in 2006 (divorce finalized in 2008). In 2011, he married again, this time to Nancy Shevell, who is 18 years younger than him. They still remain married.
The Houses That McCartney Owns (It’s a Lot), With a Couple of Cars
It is obvious for a person with such wealth to have multiple houses like all billionaires actually do. He has an impressive real estate holdings. He owns properties in the US and obviously the UK. There's a heavily secluded residence in the St. John's Wood area in London, a farmhouse in the East Sussex village of Peasmarsh and a rumored retreat home in the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland. During his years of fame with the Beatles, he lived in Liverpool houses, at least four in number.
In the US, he last bought a triplex penthouse on Fifth Avenue, directly across from Central Park, New York. He and Shevell cashed out $15.5 million as a couple to buy it in 2015. According to property records, he also owns a 1.63-acre Beverly Hills estate bought for $3.995 million from Courtney Love in 2001; a 187+acre area outside Tuscan, Arizona, that Linda died in; an East Hampton hideaway bought for $495,000 in late 1998; and a New York City townhouse purchased back in August 1984 for $1.88 million.
The Beatles members owned a lot of cars in their glory years. Paul McCartney's were always the most highlighted ones. It includes a 1965 Mini Cooper S Deville, Aston Martin DB6, Cadillac CTS, Volkswagen Beetle, Lexus RX, the classic Lamborghini 400 gt 2+2 '67 (that failed to sell in a 2018 auction), Rolls Royce Corniche, Lamborghini Espada S2 and so many more. Although, what he currently drives hasn't been identified yet.
Paul McCartney has money flowing from every way. As much as his music is appreciated, the piles of green also keep coming in. It does not come just from music, he also makes appearances on TV shows and radio talk shows. There's no stopping this artist and his growing net worth.
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