Apr 03, 2025 06:53 PM IST
The richest musician in the world is a rapper who has sold 140 million records and owns several successful businesses.
The music industry is in no shortage of money. Some of the biggest musical superstars on the planet are billionaires. Artists like Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Bruce Springsteen have all amassed wealth of over $1 billion. Yet, none of them can beat the richest musician in the world. That crown goes to a rapper who has sold over 140 million records during his career, and built a fortune worth $2.5 billion. (Also read: World’s richest filmmaker has $6.3 billion wealth; once Israeli spy, now richer than Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift)
The world’s richest musician
Rapper, record producer, and businessman Jay Z is the richest musician in the world, according to the Forbes Billionaire List 2025. The new list, released by Forbes earlier this week, estimates the American musician’s wealth at a staggering $2.5 billion. This is more than double the net worths of superstars like Bruce Springsteen and triple that of Madonna and Dr Dre. Jay Z’s nearest ‘rivals’ in this list are Taylor Swift ($1.6 billion) and Rihanna ($1.4 billion).
Jay Z’s incredible musical career
Born Shawn Corey Carter, Jay Z began his career as a teenager in the late 1980s. By the early 90s, he had achieved mainstream success to co-found his own record label, which released his first two albums. From then on, Jay Z has worn both hats – artist and record executive – allowing him to turn producer for other artists as well. Each of his last 11 albums have debuted on top of the Billboard 200. He has sold 140 million records. Just on the basis of his musical career as a performer, Jay Z would have been extremely rich. But the 55-year-old has been able to leverage other business interests too, including a clothing brand, a luxury bar chain, and a tech company that owns a streaming platform. All this allowed him to become the first billionaire from hip-hop in 2019.
In 2008, Jay Z married pop superstar Beyonce, who is also one of the most successful and richest musical artists of all time. With a net worth of $760 million, Beyonce is the 7th richest musician in the world.
