Liam Payne Net Worth: A Lonely Direction

The Liam Payne net worth sum of $58 million comes from $131 million in total earnings less $75 million in taxes and expenses. Payne earned over $100 million from his share of One Direction concert earnings. A relatively small $2.7 million comes from sales of albums and singles, with $9.4 million from YouTube. One Direction merchandise sales kick in another $12 million. Endorsement deals with companies like Toyota and Pepsi add $6 million more.

Payne performed with One Direction from 2011 through 2015. In late 2016 he announced the launch of his solo music career, though he has yet to release an album.

Liam Payne Net Worth Facts

The Liam Payne net worth total of $58 million is high for a musician who made most of his money in a non-solo career. Stacked up against solo acts he lags a bit, though he will almost certainly never be poor. Pop diva Beyonce has eight times more money than Payne with $409 million. Solo singer Drake has twice as much with $101 million. Rapper Kanye West’s net worth of $83 million is 35% bigger than Payne’s, while Justin Bieber’s $244 million outshines Payne’s net worth by a factor of five.

Taylor Swift has a net worth of $310 million. That’s six times more money than Payne has. Selfie queen Kim Kardashian has three times more than Payne with a fortune of $150 million. Rapper and businessman Dr. Dre has 15 times more money than Payne with $778 million, while Jay Z has 11 times more at $556 million.

Liam Payne Net Worth Timeline

The Liam Payne net worth timeline above shows the singer’s career earnings graphically. A boy band is a short-lived phenomenon. This one was an incredibly lucrative one. Payne started earning One Direction money in 2011. It wasn’t until 2013 that things really took off with the band’s first major concert tour, the Take Me Home Tour, which grossed over $118 million at the worldwide box office. Two more successful tours followed in 2014 and 2015 before the group disbanded.

It’s uncertain whether Payne will be able to make the transition from a member of a hugely successful boy band to a high-earning solo career. Certainly it can be done, with former NSYNC member Justin Timberlake as the most notable example in recent memory. Others are Nick Jonas, Jordan Knight and Nick Carter, though the list of stars who aren’t able to make the switch is much longer.

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Liam Payne Net Worth Sources: Music, Endorsements

The Liam Payne net worth sources are albums, singles, concerts, YouTube, acting, merchandise and endorsements. The biggest wellspring of the star’s wealth by far has been concerts, generating fully 76% of Payne’s earnings. Merchandise sales come in a somewhat surprising second at 9.5%. Surprising because many would think album sales would grab the #2 spot. That’s not the case, with album sales making up only 1.7% of the star’s total net worth, though if we include singles sales and YouTube ad revenue the total comes to 9.3% Another 4.8% of the star’s earnings come from merchandise sales, with acting kicking in a meagre 0.3%.

Payne has performed in four concert tours and appeared in five studio albums and 17 singles. His band has over seven billion YouTube views and has starred in several commercials for top companies like Pepsi and Toyota.

Liam Payne Net Worth from Album Sales: $2 Million

Album sales account for a comparatively tiny 1.7% of the Liam Payne net worth figure. All together, Payne has earned $2.2 million from sales of One Direction albums, though more than half of that went to taxes and expenses. The table below shows Payne’s total earnings from each album. Up All Night was the group’s first album in 2011. That record went double platinum and sold an estimated 2.28 million copies, taking in revenue of $25 million. One Direction’s portion of that money came to just $2.2 million. Split five ways, that comes to $443,512 for Liam Payne.

2012’s Take Me Home saw similar sales numbers, as did their Up All Night live album. The band’s three other albums each went single platinum, selling just over a million copies each. Each one of those records earned Payne about $221,000.

The band’s Take Me Home album was written by different groups of songwriters, with five writers for each song. The group’s manager, Simon Cowell, had put out a challenge to top songwriters to compete to write songs for the album.

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Liam Payne Net Worth from Singles: $515,000

Sales of singles add about half a million to the Liam Payne net worth number. The band released 17 singles and 10 of them received either  RIAA Gold, RIAA Platinum, 3x Platinum or 4x Platinum certifications. That said, the lion’s share of that money failed to trickle down to Payne. Even the group’s best-selling single, What Makes You Beautiful, only earned Payne $145,190. That single sold over 4.5 million units worldwide. At $1.99 per sale, that comes to just over $9 million. The group kept an estimate 8% of that or $726,000. Split five ways that’s just $145,190.

Payne and his four bandmates all contributed to the lyrics for the single Story of My Life. The song is the only one on the album they all worked on together. In the video are still photos of many of their relatives.

Liam Payne Net Worth from Concerts: $100 Million

Concerts add the biggest slice of the Liam Payne net worth pie at just over $100 million. Their first tour was the Up All Night tour, connected to their debut album of the same name. Though the tour covered 53 shows across Europe and North America, many of those were in smaller venues like clubs and theaters. The tour grossed about $6.6 million, of which Liam Payne got to keep just over a million. The band’s next tour, the Take Me Home tour, did significantly better. With 123 shows worldwide in mostly big arenas, it grossed more than $118 million. The group kept an estimated 80% of that, of which Payne got 1/5th or $18.8 million.
The band’s biggest tour was the next in 2014, titled Where We Are. That one hit a lesser 69 shows but pulled down a gargantuan $290 million. It also spawned a later live album that went RIAA Platinum on its own.

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Liam Payne Net Worth from YouTube: $9 Million

A surprising $9.4 million of the Liam Payne net worth sum comes from YouTube ad earnings. The band has amassed over 7 billion YouTube views as of 1/9/17. At about $7.90 per 1,000 views, they pull in $55 million in ad revenue. Assuming Payne gets to keep a fifth of that money would give him $9.4 million.

The band’s most popular YouTube video is 2011’s What Makes You Beautiful. The video depicts the group singing on a surfing holiday in a vintage VW bus. That song has over 824 million YouTube views all by itself.

Liam Payne Net Worth from Acting, Endorsements, Merchandise: $13 Million

Sales of merchandise tip the Liam Payne net worth scales to the tune of $12.5 million. It’s estimated that the group earned about 10% of their concert take in the form of merchandise royalties. Payne’s 1/5th of that comes to $12.5 million. Smaller income sources include acting and endorsement deals. Payne and his bandmates starred in ads for Toyota, Pepsi, Macy’s, Honda, various fragrances, Pokemon, Coca Cola and several other major brands and products. Payne earned a likely $6.6 million as his share of these ads.

Acting makes up the smallest part of Payne’s earnings at just $385,000. Payne appeared in an episode of Family Guy in 2016 and an episode of iCarly in 2012. He also showed up in 36 other talk and news shows since 2011.

Liam Payne Solo Career

Will Payne’s solo career pay off? Maybe, but it hasn’t yet. Payne has reportedly signed deals with both Capital Records and Republic records as of late 2016. Those deals don’t give him any money yet, since he’ll need to produce and sell albums in order to add his cut to his net worth.

Liam Payne Net Worth Calculations

The Liam Payne net worth calculations below add up his total earnings in one column by year. They then subtract taxes and expenses, adding back investment income in the next column. As a resident of the UK, Payne pays the union’s highest tax rate of 45%. He has expenses estimated at 15% of all income from concerts, albums and other sources. Investment income is calculated at 6% of total net worth per year.

If you liked reading about Liam Payne’s net worth, try this post about LeBron James’ net worth or this one about Kendall Jenner’s net worth. All Liam Payne net worth data in this article are based on our analysis of income streams, tax, expense and investment calculations, estimates and media reports and are provided here for entertainment purposes only.