How Paul McCartney became a billionaire and the role the stock market played

​Forbes has estimated Paul McCartney's net worth at $1.4 billion, placing him among the world's three richest musicians. Behind this fortune are not only legendary hits but also decades of investments. However, the musician's experience with the stock market was far from entirely successful.

Millions generated by timeless hits

Music copyrights form the foundation of 84-year-old Paul McCartney's fortune. In 1969, he founded MPL Communications, a company that now owns thousands of songs, including works by other artists. According to Forbes, the business is worth at least $250 million.

Another major asset is McCartney's 25% stake in Apple Corps, the company that manages The Beatles' commercial interests. It generates more than $50 million annually from streaming, vinyl sales, and merchandise. McCartney's stake is valued at more than $150 million. In addition, his songwriting rights to The Beatles' songs generate at least $10 million a year, with an estimated value of $200 million.

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McCartney has also earned a substantial portion of his wealth from live performances. During his Got Back tour alone, he performed 79 concerts between 2022 and 2025, while his total touring earnings over the decades amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. His fortune also includes properties in the UK and the U.S., as well as an art collection featuring works by Pablo Picasso and René Magritte.

How Beatlemania took over the stock exchange

But McCartney's path to his first billion involved more than concerts and royalty payments. As early as the 1960s, he became involved in stock market transactions that did not always work in his favor.

On February 18, 1965, Northern Songs, the company that owned the publishing rights to songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, went public on the London Stock Exchange. Investors were offered 1.25 million shares at just over $1 each. At the time of the offering, the company was valued at approximately $7.6 million.

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Northern Songs had genuine sources of revenue. As Time magazine reported, the rights to 56 Lennon-McCartney songs generated around $1.4 million in annual royalties. However, investors were attracted less by the company's financial performance than by The Beatles' extraordinary popularity. Around 3,500 people bought shares, and the excitement surrounding the offering resembled the speculative frenzy seen in modern meme stocks.

But buyers' expectations were disappointed. Shortly after trading began, the share price fell below $0.84, and a subsequent rally fueled by another U.S. tour by The Beatles was not immediately enough for investors to recover their losses. In September 1965, Forbes even mocked buyers who had been swept up in Beatlemania despite warnings from financial journalists.

McCartney himself received around $263,000 from the offering after selling part of his shareholding. Following Northern Songs' stock market debut, he retained 750,000 shares, representing 15% of the company. Lennon held an identical stake. Meanwhile, music publisher Dick James and his business partner Charles Silver controlled substantial blocks of shares.

How McCartney lost control of his own songs

McCartney's real problems began not with falling share prices but with the battle for control of Northern Songs. In 1969, Dick James and Charles Silver sold their combined 32% stake to media company ATV without informing Lennon and McCartney. The musicians attempted to acquire a controlling stake but lost the takeover battle.

By September, ATV had accumulated 54% of Northern Songs' shares, and Lennon and McCartney later agreed to sell their holdings. McCartney received ATV debt securities worth approximately $3.6 million in exchange for his stake but lost the ability to control the publishing rights to his own hits.

In 1985, Michael Jackson acquired ATV's music catalog for $47.5 million. Along with thousands of other compositions, the deal gave him the publishing rights to 251 Beatles songs, including Yesterday, Hey Jude, and Let It Be. Interestingly, McCartney himself had previously advised Jackson to invest in music catalogs, explaining how profitable copyrights could be.

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Meanwhile, McCartney was actively investing in music rights himself. In the 1970s, his company MPL Communications acquired Buddy Holly's catalog. It later expanded its holdings to include rights to Broadway musicals such as Grease and popular Christmas songs. For example, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas and The Christmas Song continue to generate revenue from streaming, public performances, and licensing.

At the same time, McCartney spent decades trying to regain the rights to The Beatles' songs. In 1995, Jackson merged his music publishing business with Sony, and the Japanese corporation eventually gained full control of Sony/ATV. In 2017, McCartney reached a settlement with the company following a legal dispute in the U.S. American copyright law allowed him to begin reclaiming his share of the publishing rights to songs written decades earlier starting in 2018. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Investment lessons from the stock market

McCartney's story shows that a company's popularity does not guarantee profits for its shareholders, while owning shares does not always mean having control over a business. Investors who bought Northern Songs shares during Beatlemania failed to achieve the quick returns they had expected, while the musician himself later lost control over the rights to his own hits. His experience highlights the risks of investing in popular assets without carefully assessing their underlying value and ownership structure.

At the same time, long-term investments helped McCartney build his billion-dollar fortune. For decades, he acquired music rights that continue to generate recurring royalty income. His example shows that successful investing is not just about buying an asset at an attractive price, but also about retaining control over it and earning returns for many years.