Power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z have a lot money, so much, in fact, that the two celebs
are worth more than twice as much as the Queen of England.
But how do these stars make all that cash?
It certainly isn't only from album sales.
You won't catch Jay-Z dropping daughter Blue Ivy off for ballet class in a Honda Odyssey.
Though he's been known to occasionally hop on the subway, the hip hop mogul has some
pretty nice toys.
According to Page Six, the star dropped a whopping $8 million on a Maybach Exelero.
But he doesn't limit himself to just fancy cars.
The royal family of rap reportedly has a $40 million private plane, and the Carters have
also been spotted cruising on a $50 million yacht to celebrate Beyoncé's 32nd birthday.
Riding around in style is one thing, but Beyoncé and Jay-Z also have some pretty impressive
real estate holdings.
According to E! News, the pair owns a $135 million Bel Air compound.
You heard that right: compound.
It's complete with four pools, eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a 15-car garage, a spa, a fitness
center, and a literal helipad.
E! News reported that Bey and Jay also own a $26 million, 12,000 square-foot mansion
in the Hamptons that comes with a 1,800 square-foot guest house.
Yet, despite their otherworldly wealth and influence, it's nice to know these two haven't
lost sight of what's truly important in life:
"The most beautiful things are not these objects.
The most beautiful things are inside."
According to Billboard, Beyoncé's album sales were reportedly just 6.9 percent of her total
earnings in 2016, but boy was that tiny percentage gigantic.
That year, the former Destiny's Child member dropped the album Lemonade, which became the
third best-selling album in the U.S. behind Adele's 25 and Drake's Views, as reported
by Billboard.
The album was said to have sold almost 2.2 million units.
Between Lemonade's success and royalties from her previous works, the star pulled in $4.3
million.
Jay-Z, on the other hand, didn't make as much as his wife from album sales during the release
of 4:44, but he sold a million copies before his 13th studio album was even released in
2017.
According to E! News, Sprint purchased a million copies in advance to give as free downloads
to Tidal subscribers.
He managed to sell an additional 262,000 album-equivalent units which shot his efforts to the top of
the Billboard 200, but he only brought in $3 million that year from all of his royalties
combined.
This was reportedly just 1.5 percent of his overall 2017 paycheck.
In 2015, Jay-Z purchased Tidal's parent company for $56 million in an effort to capitalize
on the ever-changing music industry.
According to The New York Times, the streaming service was a sort of underdog compared to
Spotify, Rhapsody, and YouTube.
A year prior, Apple began their pivot towards streaming and purchased Beats Music as part
of a $3 billion deal.
Basically, Jay got in early, and it paid off.
"Right now, they're writing the story for us, we need to write the story for ourselves."
It's undeniable that the Carters helped raise Tidal's profile, along with a number of A-listers
like Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Kanye West, who all own a stake in the company.
It didn't take long for its value to skyrocket.
Even though its user base remains relatively small compared to frontrunners like Spotify
and Apple, Forbes reported that Tidal's worth skyrocketed to around $600 million by 2018.
Talk about a return on investment!
In 2017, Jay-Z pulled in a whopping $200 million after he sold a 33 percent stake in the company
to Sprint, as reported by the BBC.
The only thing better than a Carter alone is when the Carters team up.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z pulled in an enormous amount of money from their joint On The Run tour
series.
According to Billboard, the pair first embarked on a 21-date run in 2014.
It "grossed $109.6 million from 980,000 tickets sold."
But this is one of the rare cases where the sequel is actually better than the original.
In June 2018, the Carters embarked on On The Run II to promote their collaborative album
Everything Is Love, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 later that month.
It exceeded expectations and more than doubled the couple's profits from the previous incarnation.
With support from DJ Khaled and Chloe x Halle, the tour raked in a whopping $253.5 million
from more that 2.17 million tickets sold.
It was twice as long as the original On The Run and featured 48 shows spanning North America
and Europe.
The Carters may make an excellent team, and Jay-Z may rake in quite a bit of dough from
countless income streams including a ten-year, $200 million deal with Live Nation.
But the fact remains that Beyoncé is the clear breadwinner when it comes to individual
ticket sales.
According to E! News, her Formation tour in 2016 pulled in an estimated $250 million.
She personally walked away with $54.7 million worth of the pie.
Alternatively, Jay-Z's 4:44 tour grossed $48.7 million in 2017, and he personally only profited
an estimated $14 million.
Tell us again, who run the world?
Though the Formation tour is a thing of the past, Bey still claims high performance fees
for her solo concerts.
Business Insider estimated that the "Single Ladies" singer got around $3 million for her
2018 headlining set at Coachella.
In 2016, E! News estimated that touring accounted for 88 percent of the star's annual earnings.
The artist also occasionally acts.
She's landed roles in flicks like Dreamgirls and 2013's animated Epic.
She also signed on as the voice of Nala for Disney's live-action remake of The Lion King.
Retail is a huge market for both Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
The latter co-founded Rocawear in the late '90s and sold the rights to his brand almost
a decade later for $200 million, as noted by E! News.
"So, I was like: Maybe I can just start my own thing, start my own clothing line, make
it the right fit, just baggy enough for everybody."
In 2003, he had a landmark Reebok collab, which according to Complex, "changed the sneaker
industry forever" when his first pair of kicks sold 10,000 units at about $150 each an hour
after they hit shelves.
Years after Jay sold Rocawear, Beyoncé embarked on her own retail journey.
In 2014, the singer started developing an athleisure line with Topshop billionaire Philip
Green, launching their first products at the British retailer in 2016.
According to Mashable, Ivy Park was the most popular fashion brand on Instagram before
it even hit stores and sold out almost instantly upon release.
And that's not even mentioning her fragrance line!
Mrs. Carter has sold $400 million worth of fragrances, according to WWD.
The last-reported figures are from 2013, so who knows how much more she's actually made?
Bey broke Macy's sales records with her fragrance line Heat.
Though she's seen a number of releases including Pulse and Rise, the very first scent made
$75,000 in a single day.
According to People StyleWatch, it brought in $3 million during the first month in a
time when celebrity fragrances typically garnered just $2.5 million a year.
That's quite a feat, but if anyone can do it, it's Queen Bey.