Madonna Bests Paul McCartney As World's Richest Recording Artist

Madonna tops a new list of the world's wealthiest recording artists, besting fellow 1 percenters Paul McCartney and Dr. Dre. According to Wealth-X's net worth valuation of the pop queen, Madge is worth a staggering $800 million.

That's significantly less than the one billion the New York Post valued her at in 2013, but it's far ahead of Sir Paul, whose net worth Wealth-X places at $660. For those of you who thought Macca had more scratch, keep in mind that his wife, Nancy Shevell, is worth a reported $300 million. So although the McCartney couple is worth more than Madge, the former Beatle isn't richer than her on his own.

Following McCartney comes Dr. Dre who -- despite that massive Beats deal with Apple -- is at No. 3 on the list with $650 million. Speaking of rap moguls, Diddy is the fourth-wealthiest recording artist in 2014 -- although at this point, both Dr. Dre and Diddy are more businessmen than active recording artists.

But keep in mind that this is a list of the world's wealthiest recording artists. When you include musicians as a whole, you open the list up to composers and theater moguls like Andrew Lloyd Webber -- a man worth around $1.2 billion. So clearly, Cats pays better than Beatles.

Here's Wealth-X's full list of 10 Richest Recording Artists. Amounts are in U.S. dollars. 

1) Madonna $800 million

2) Paul McCartney $660 million

3) Dr. Dre $650 million

4) Diddy $640 million

5) Celine Dion $630 million

6) Bono $590 million

7) Mariah Carey $520 million

8) Jay Z $510 million

9) Elton John $450 million

10) Beyonce $440 million