“It should cost a billion to look this good,” Beyoncé sings on “Pure/Honey” from her 2022 album, Renaissance. Given the stellar year the 42-year-old entertainer has had, money doesn’t appear to be a problem—she is now on a glidepath to becoming a billionaire, with a net worth of $800 million, Forbes estimates.
In June, Beyoncé ranked No. 48 on Forbes’ annual list of the richest self-made women in America, with a net worth of $540 million. The dramatic boost to her fortune can be attributed to her substantial 2023 earnings—she banked an estimated $100 million (post-tax) from the Renaissance World Tour—as well as an adjustment to Forbes’ estimate of her music catalog and her art collection. Sources tell Forbes the singer’s catalog is now worth some $300 million. The remainder of her net worth is made up of the personal assets she shares with her billionaire husband, Jay-Z, as well as her business holdings through Parkwood Entertainment, which she founded in 2010. (Representatives for Beyoncé did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.)
One of the major drivers to the increase to Beyoncé’s net worth was her blockbuster Renaissance tour, which ran from May to October and spanned 39 cities in 17 countries. Renaissance brought in more than $579 million in revenue, making it one of the top 10 highest-grossing tours in history, according to Billboard.
“She’s one of the music gods,” IAG chairman Dennis Arfa, who represents acts including Billy Joel and Metallica, tells Forbes. “The business she does, and the amount of people that she draws, that she can do a movie on her own. She can do things most can’t.”
In June, Beyoncé ranked No. 48 on Forbes’ annual list of the richest self-made women in America, with a net worth of $540 million. The dramatic boost to her fortune can be attributed to her substantial 2023 earnings—she banked an estimated $100 million (post-tax) from the Renaissance World Tour—as well as an adjustment to Forbes’ estimate of her music catalog and her art collection. Sources tell Forbes the singer’s catalog is now worth some $300 million. The remainder of her net worth is made up of the personal assets she shares with her billionaire husband, Jay-Z, as well as her business holdings through Parkwood Entertainment, which she founded in 2010. (Representatives for Beyoncé did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.)
One of the major drivers to the increase to Beyoncé’s net worth was her blockbuster Renaissance tour, which ran from May to October and spanned 39 cities in 17 countries. Renaissance brought in more than $579 million in revenue, making it one of the top 10 highest-grossing tours in history, according to Billboard.
“She’s one of the music gods,” IAG chairman Dennis Arfa, who represents acts including Billy Joel and Metallica, tells Forbes. “The business she does, and the amount of people that she draws, that she can do a movie on her own. She can do things most can’t.”
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00:00 Following her record-setting Renaissance tour, which brought in more than $579 million in
00:05 revenue, Beyoncé is well on her way to becoming a billionaire.
00:12 Hi everybody, I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes Breaking News.
00:15 Joining me now is my colleague, entertainment reporter Marissa DeLato.
00:18 Marissa, thank you so much for coming on in.
00:20 Thank you for having me.
00:23 So excited.
00:24 Of course, I'm very excited to talk to you.
00:27 This has been the year of the woman, and one of those women is Beyoncé.
00:31 And you estimated her net worth today.
00:34 What is it?
00:36 Around $800 million, which is very, very exciting for Beyoncé and for Beyoncé fans like me
00:43 and probably you.
00:45 I am a Beyoncé fan too, have been for decades since the 90s, and her career has spanned
00:51 over 20 years.
00:52 So I'm curious how much of her money is made up from her catalog versus other ventures.
00:57 Sure.
00:58 So Beyoncé is a really interesting character.
01:01 A majority of it is based on her cash pile that she's made up, as you mentioned, through
01:06 decades in the entertainment industry.
01:09 Roughly $300 million of the $800 million is the estimated worth of her music catalog.
01:19 Researchers told me, should she ever decide to sell, whether her publishing, her recording
01:24 catalog, whatever artist stream she has, people would be bidding like crazy over it.
01:32 I mean, it's Beyoncé.
01:33 It's an iconic piece of work, and it's a catalog that continues to grow.
01:41 Forbes estimated Beyoncé's net worth to be $540 million in June, and that landed her
01:47 at number 48 on our annual list of the richest self-made women in America.
01:52 Now we're seeing her net worth at $800 million.
01:54 So why the dramatic increase?
01:56 Because that is over $200 million in half a year.
02:00 Yeah.
02:01 You know, some of that is because of the hard work that Beyoncé has put in this year.
02:05 The self-made women list came out in June, which was just a month after Beyoncé had
02:10 gone on the tour for Renaissance, her world tour that swept the world this summer.
02:17 And she personally banked after taxes around $100 million from that tour alone.
02:23 So that's one of the significant drivers of the boost of her net worth.
02:28 Another part of it is Forbes, and we're kind of going through and reevaluating the worth
02:33 of her catalog, as well as some of her other assets, like her real estate and her art collection
02:38 and other things like that.
02:40 And given the wild success she had this year, we wanted to take an extra hard look at Beyoncé.
02:45 So we did a little work and she did a lot, a lot of work.
02:48 So this really goes to her.
02:50 She did over $200 million worth of work, apparently, according to the net worth.
02:55 I do want to talk about her other assets in just a moment.
02:58 But something interesting that you put in your piece was that you would expect there
03:04 to be a lot of competition this year, especially with women in the entertainment industry,
03:08 because when you're thinking about the top tours in this country, there were two of them.
03:13 Beyoncé's Renaissance tour and Taylor Swift's ERA Stadium tour.
03:18 And instead of competition, you wrote about how they really banded together.
03:21 They supported each other.
03:23 Can you talk a little bit about that?
03:24 Yeah, absolutely.
03:25 I think one of the really magical things that happened this year is, you know, they happened,
03:31 you know, we couldn't get enough of women in entertainment.
03:34 I mean, even on the film side, you see Barbie, you're seeing all these different projects
03:38 that are happening all at the same time.
03:40 And the fact that they're both able to succeed at once shows that there's, you know, maybe
03:45 there's, you know, this competition that we see isn't competition.
03:49 They're not working against each other.
03:51 You know, more we're supporting one artist, we're supporting another, you know, there's
03:55 room for everyone here.
03:57 And I think the fact that, you know, female fans really showed up for their female entertainers
04:02 shows the power we have, the power that these artists have, and just shows the appetite
04:07 for investing and supporting artists like this.
04:10 And, you know, we want to see more of that going into 2024.
04:14 Absolutely.
04:15 Beyonce has really been on the highest echelons of the entertainment world for years.
04:21 And something that stuck out to me in your reporting is you quoted the vice president
04:25 of A&R at Capitol Record, and he said this, "Breaking norms is what has made Beyonce so
04:30 successful."
04:31 Can you talk a little bit about that, about that strategy, about how she's continued to
04:35 break norms over the course of decades?
04:39 I think for Beyonce, you know, something that's really hard is getting people to listen to
04:44 new music.
04:45 I mean, new music is not as popular as, you know, music that's already out.
04:51 It's hard to get fans to try something new.
04:54 And something that happened with Beyonce, she just came at the top of the top.
04:58 She could have sat there, she could have kept putting out that same pop R&B that she's always
05:02 done.
05:03 And over literally decades, she's decided, "No, I'm not going to do that.
05:06 I'm going to keep trying new things," which is a really genius business strategy.
05:11 It's almost like entrepreneurial music.
05:14 She's decided, she's gotten fans used to expecting something new.
05:18 We're ready, we're comfortable listening to something new.
05:21 We know it's coming from Beyonce, and we know it's going to be incredible.
05:24 And that's fantastic for her because she gets to try out all these different things artistically,
05:30 to try to push the envelope forward, to move the industry in certain directions.
05:34 I mean, he told me, Carter, that, you know, Beyonce is, who he hears from his artists
05:40 is their favorite artist.
05:42 She really is such an influence on the industry.
05:45 And that benefits everyone when we have, you know, there's people who are help breaking
05:49 people out of the box, breaking the industry out of the box.
05:53 You know, we benefit as fans because we get different kinds of sounds and music.
05:57 And, you know, the artists get to benefit because they get to try new things.
06:01 And for Beyonce, like I said, it's become like the marker to her success because we
06:07 know to expect something new to Beyonce, from Beyonce, excuse me.
06:12 We know we're ready for that and we're prepared.
06:14 And that's great because there's no risk there for her.
06:19 She's already mitigated the risk.
06:21 We know we're going to, we're ready for it.
06:23 We're prepared.
06:24 So for her to try something new, it's a staple at this point.
06:27 It's genius.
06:28 And that's what makes her Beyonce.
06:30 She's incredible.
06:31 And even when we're not prepared, I mean, I believe it was the homecoming album that
06:35 she dropped without warning, right?
06:38 It was she's done this a few different times.
06:40 I mean, she did it literally 10 years ago this week with her self-titled Beyonce visual
06:45 album.
06:46 I mean, she has that line, you know, you were with that digital drop.
06:49 And it's like, I do know where I was 10 years ago when that album came out with no warning.
06:54 And with homecoming, I mean, she could have take that was just a Coachella performance.
06:58 She could have just done, you know, history of her career, you know, all her top hits
07:03 over two weekends called it a day.
07:05 Instead, she built this fantastic detailed show about, you know, historical black colleges
07:14 and universities.
07:15 And, you know, she changed all her songs and re-produced them to have horns and put out
07:22 an album and a documentary.
07:25 And she just took what would be a simple task for someone else.
07:29 And she just did so much extra work and really took it to the extra mile, which is it's why
07:35 Beyonce is Beyonce, because she doesn't it's not that she doesn't even take no for an answer.
07:40 She doesn't even just take yeses.
07:43 She doesn't just understand the assignment.
07:44 She changes the assignment.
07:47 And it's amazing.
07:49 It is amazing.
07:50 And she's been an entrepreneur in the music space for years.
07:53 She's an entrepreneur in other industries as well.
07:55 And I want you to break them down because they are drivers of her net worth.
07:59 Let's talk about fashion for 2023.
08:02 It's been kind of a mixed bag for Beyonce.
08:03 Can you talk a little bit about that for us?
08:05 Yes.
08:06 So Beyonce had had this at leisure line, Ivy Park for a few years.
08:11 You know, it started with Topshop and then it went to Adidas.
08:14 And this year, her and Adidas decided to part ways.
08:17 It was reported in the Wall Street Journal before that decision was publicly released
08:22 that, you know, the line was actually losing money for Adidas.
08:27 So, you know, they decided to part ways, whether that brand is revived in a different style
08:32 or, you know, a different iteration going forward.
08:35 We don't know.
08:36 But she did launch a collaboration with Balmain Renaissance Couture, which, again, kind of
08:42 speaks to her her total vision of a project.
08:46 You know, again, this wasn't just an album and a tour.
08:49 It was a fashion style.
08:51 I mean, she had this couture line, you know, designed perfectly to complement her vision
08:58 for for this project.
09:00 And it's what fans would often wear to the show, similar to, you know, people would come
09:05 to Taylor Swift shows in different eras.
09:07 You know, people came showing up as this Beyonce, you know, silver, platinum, metallic, this
09:13 vision that she had and the fact that she can express herself in different mediums,
09:18 I think is really fascinating.
09:19 And, you know, maybe, you know, I don't know what the you know, how different projects
09:23 are going to work out and we'll see.
09:25 But, you know, Beyonce, her her, you know, she's still creating nonetheless, which I
09:30 think is is kind of speaks to her.
09:33 She just wants to to put out whether it's successful or not.
09:38 She also I do want to pivot has a impressive real estate portfolio that she has with her
09:44 husband, who's a billionaire, Jay-Z. Can you talk a little bit about that for us?
09:48 Yes. You know, they those two when you are successful as Jay-Z and Beyonce, you have
09:54 the homes to back it up.
09:56 Earlier this year, they spent a recorded two hundred million dollars on a California home,
10:02 which is allegedly the the biggest home purchase ever in the history of the state.
10:08 And, you know, it's fantastic.
10:10 You know, they have other homes in California.
10:12 They have a home in the Hamptons.
10:13 You know, Jay-Z has a place in New York.
10:16 And so they really, you know, have kind of established themselves as this power couple
10:23 and are putting to money, putting their money to use, which like, hey, if you have it, go
10:28 ahead.
10:30 Something that's been a theme, obviously, in this conversation is Beyonce really has
10:33 this staying power.
10:35 She's been a celebrity now for decades, but a very successful one at that.
10:41 Her net worth has skyrocketed.
10:43 Her tour this year, she headlined one of the top 10 highest grossing tours in history.
10:48 You noted that in your reporting.
10:50 So what do you think gives Beyonce this staying power?
10:54 From what my sources told me, and as a Beyonce fan, this is something I totally agree with.
10:58 It's kind of what we touched on earlier.
11:00 It's the fact that she keeps changing and pushing that envelope and evolving.
11:05 She doesn't say stagnant.
11:07 She does not keep putting out the same sound.
11:09 She keeps pushing herself creatively, whether that's to do a film project, whether that's
11:15 to do visuals for an album, whether that is even just trying out a new genre.
11:20 What I think is so fascinating about Renaissance in particular, being her most successful tour
11:26 to date is the fact that this is not your standard Beyonce album.
11:30 This is a dance album.
11:31 And it is specifically music geared, inspired by both the black community and the queer
11:37 community and ballroom culture.
11:39 And so I think the fact that she chose to bring those cultures to the forefront to give
11:45 fans something that maybe they weren't expecting from her.
11:49 And the fact that it was so successful shows that fans are really hungry for just not the
11:56 same old thing.
11:57 We want to be dazzled and wowed in the fact that she can deliver that.
12:02 And that success of something that, again, is not her typical Beyonce is just powerful.
12:11 And that's why she's been able to stay, because she constantly is evolving.
12:16 She's not just she can't just do you know, she's not just giving one thing that was good
12:19 for a few years and then that falls out of trend.
12:23 Instead, she's setting the trends for the industry.
12:26 And that's why we're going to be seeing her for many more decades to come.
12:31 We will be in the nursing home still jamming out to Beyonce.
12:35 Marissa Delato.
12:36 I will see you there.
12:38 Marissa Delato, thank you so much for your reporting.
12:40 I really appreciate it.
12:42 Thank you.
12:43 Talk to you soon.
12:43 Bye.
12:44 Bye.
12:45 Bye.
12:46 Bye.
12:47 Bye.
12:48 Bye.
12:49 Bye.
12:50 Bye.
12:51 Bye.
12:52 Bye.