London

Paul McCartney has joined the pantheon of billionaires as Forbes has ranked his net worth at approximately $US1.4 billion.

The 84-year-old Beatles legend is estimated to have become the third richest musician in the world, behind Taylor Swift and Jay-Z.

Jay-Z topped the rich list at $US2.8 billion, according to Forbes.

McCartney’s continued rise in wealth has been credited in part to his MPL Communications publishing company.

Established in 1969, before the Fab Four split, the company is said to be worth at least a quarter of a billion dollars.

Although McCartney has declined to comment on the estimates, it’s said he likely pulls in tens of millions of dollars every year in revenue.

He previously noted in a 2017 piece for Forbes that the Beatles’ original record deal “turned out to be a slave contract,” giving each member less than one cent for every album sold.

McCartney spent years in legal battles and negotiations to secure bigger shares of the Beatles’ catalogue for each member and their estates, along with his own songwriting copyrights.

As well as his classic songs and festive hits like It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, he also owns musical scores, meaning he gets royalties whenever high school productions of shows like Grease are performed.

Adding to the royalty cheques, McCartney’s net worth is further bolstered by his lucrative music catalogues, hundreds of millions in earnings from world tours, real estate in the UK, and an art collection including items by Pablo Picasso.

McCartney previously insisted he considers himself a “playaholic”, because he never thinks of his music career as work.

He told Zane Lowe in an interview for Apple Music: “People say, ‘Oh you’re a workaholic’ and I say, ‘We don’t work music, we play it, so I’m a playaholic!”

“I hate it when making music starts to feel like work.”

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