What Beyoncé And Jay-Z's Billion Dollar Empire Look Like

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It's no news that the Carters not just multimillionaires- they are legitimate billionaires and their earning potential seems to be vastly on the rise.

Beyoncé and her hubby, Shawn Carter, were speedily approaching billionaire status in 2016, when they were worth around $905 million together. This grew steadily over the next year, and eventually brought the Carters' combined wealth to an estimated $1.16 billion in 2017 and $1.25 billion in 2018 according to Forbes' estimates.

For the both of them, the journey to riches started with music. And while the fact that they both music artists stand as a very important part of all their moneymaking ventures, what they earn from just music sales makes up a fraction of their fortune.
It's no wonder Queen Bey added on her and Jay-Z's joint album Everything Is Love, saying "My great, great, grandchildren already rich".
What does that tell you? This couple are super super rich!!!
It's looking like the parents to 6-year-old daughter Blue Ivy and 14-month-old twins Rumi and Sir, will stay in a position to fund generations of the Carter family. What an incredible achievement.

According to Eonline, Beyoncé, 37 today, and Jay-z, 48, currently own an $88 million dollar Bel Air Compound, a $26 million dollar Hamptons mansion and a $40 million dollar private jet. And they using on vacations like king and Queen, enjoying the Mediterranean aboard a $50 million yacht, making "lovely memories" all over Europe.

As of 2018, Beyoncé alone was worth an estimated $355 million, while Jay-Z was around $900 million of their collective $1.25 billion. This couple have proven to be incredibly business savvy, but do you know that they have taken different approaches to making their hundreds of millions so far?

Are you wondering how it all adds up? Well, if you curious to know, read on.

1. Music Sales:  In 2016, Beyoncé's Lemonade album sold 2.2 million copies, which made it the third best-selling album in the U.S. behind Drake's Views and Adele's 25 (according to Billboard). These sales—plus the royalties coming in from her other albums as a solo artist and as a member of Destiny's Child—brought Beyoncé an estimated $4.3 million in 2016.
But according to Billboard's estimates, the $4.3 million in music sales in 2016 only accounted for about 6.9 percent of Beyoncé's overall earnings for the year.

Now let's see how her hubby did in 2017.
when Jay-Z released his thirteenth studio album, 4:44, in 2017, Sprint pre-purchased 1 million copies of the album, which were available as a free download for Tidal subscribers. The sales didn't count towards chart rankings, but 4:44 still came out at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earning 262,000 album-equivalent units.

According to Billboard's estimates, These sales—along with residual royalties from Jay-Z's previous albums—earned the him around $3 million in 2017.
Matter of fact, just music sales alone accounted for about 1.5 percent of the 19.8 million Jay made in 2017 according to Billboard's estimates.

2. Music Streaming:  Just in case you are not aware, Music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and Tidal, have changed the way users listen to music and the way artists profit from it. Apparently, artists and songwriters receive royalties based on the number of times their content is streamed, but with the available pre-Tidal streaming model, even mega stars like Beyoncé and Jay-Z were receiving meagre payouts. .

So with this, Jay-z quickly grab the opportunity to purchase Aspiro(The Swedish parent company of Tidal) in 2015 for a reported $56 million.

Few months after purchasing Aspiro, Jay-Z relaunched Tidal as a premiere subscriber-only streaming platform. He did this with the assistance of several other "artist-owners"including Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj and Chris Martin.

Tidal wasn't actually the quick success the Carters were hoping for at the time, but Jay and Bey kept pushing on.
Beyoncé released Lemonade exclusively on Tidal on April, 2016 to help drive subscribers to the streaming service; the visual album was subsequently available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon Music two days later, and two weeks after its first release, Lemonade was available for sale at physical retailers.
Bey didn't release the album to Tidal's streaming competitors—a fact she made noticeable in "Nice," the fourth song from her and Jay-Z's joint album Everything Is Love. She sang "...My] success can't be quantified/ If I gave two f--ks, two f--ks about streaming numbers/Would have put Lemonade up on Spotify."

Also, Jay-Z did a similar Tidal-only release for 4:44, which was followed by a larger release two days later. He and queen Bey repeated this limited release model with Everything Is Love earlier this summer—although this album solely did move to Spotify Premium just two days after its Tidal-only release..

According to Billboard's estimates, Beyoncé made around a whooping $1.9 million from streaming in 2016, while her hubby, Jay-Z made around $2.5 million from streaming the following year.

However, The original and main streaming success for the Carters can be traced to their ownership investment in Tidal.
Right now, Tidal is worth somewhere in the region of $600 million. And That's more than 10 times what Jay-Z reportedly paid for the streaming service in 2015.

There is no exact figure or no facts that shows how much of Jay's funds are tied up in Tidal but we should have it at the back of our minds that the undisputed rapper is getting a massive return on his investment.

3. Rock Nation:  Jay-Z is no doubt a big influence in the music industry and has been investing in the industry for a very long time.  The rapper co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records back in 1994, sold half to Def Jam in 1997 and I'm 2004 sold the rest of his shared stake to the label for a reported 10 million.

He soon emerged as president of Def Jam Recordings until 2007, and in 2008, Jay launched Roc Nation, which happens to be "the world's preeminent entertainment company."

According to Forbes, Roc Nation had 33 clients and $906 million worth of contracts under management in just 2017. We aren't sure what Jay's share is on these earnings, but the fact he owns the growing media company reportedly accounts for the largest portion of the $900 million he's reported to be worth.

4. Touring:  Now if you didn't know, it's time to know that Live concerts brings in massive returns for Roc Nations and the couple personally.  As it is now, Their On The Run II tour has already grossed $150 million, according to Billboard, and with dates running through early October, it might easily surpass the $250 million mark. Jeez!!!

According to Billboard, Jay personally earned $14 million from his 4:44 world tour, and Beyoncé earned a whooping $54.7 million from her Formation Tour. Based on these estimates, touring accounted for around 70.7 percent of Jay-Z's earnings in 2017 and 88 percent of Beyoncé's earnings in 2016.

5. Endorsements And Other Investments:   Do you remember Beyoncé's long running relationship with Pepsi back in 2002? This partnership produced some epic commercials through the years- In the advert, Bey stared as a Pepsi gladiator alongside Britney Spears and Pink.   In 2012, the singer reportedly negotiated a new multi-year deal with the soda supplier which worth a reported $50 million. She has also had paid partnerships with L'Oréal, Nintendo DSi, American Express, etc.

Beyoncé is apparently no stranger to the fashion world and it's obvious she loves fashion too. In 2005, bey and her mother, Tina Knowles Lawson(fashion designer), launched House of Deréon, a women's clothing line that later introduced shoes and a junior collection. It stopped functioning in 2012, but two years later, Beyoncé partnered with Topshop to launch her Ivy Park athleisure line.

We all know Jay-Z has investments in Roc Nation and Tidal, Did you know that the rapper is the owner of Armand de Brignac, a luxury champagne company, and The 40/40 Club, a high-end sports bar with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Atlanta? Well, he sure owns those!

Although, Jay-Z sold his stake in the Brooklyn Nets for a pretty profit circa 2013, he currently still has a little stake in the Barclays Center that's worth around $2 million, according to Forbes. He also was reportedly an early investor in JetSmarter, which is currently a billion-dollar app mostly referred to as the Uber of private jets.

There are still some few more investments this great couple have but this is all we can take for now and it's very clear to the world that Jay and Bey are one of the world's most powerful people.