Sir Paul McCartney, Britain’s richest performer, moves up to third place in the latest Sunday Times Rich List Music Millionaires Top 50, thanks largely to his marriage in October to Nancy Shevell..

The chart of The Top 50 Music Millionaires in Britain and Ireland is included in The Sunday Times Rich List 2012, the definitive annual guide to wealth in Britain and Ireland to be published in an extra 104-page magazine free with The Sunday Times this weekend. The richest sportsmen will appear in The Sunday Times Sport Rich List 2012 published on May 6. Additional guides to wealth will appear at thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist from April 29, with the Richest 2,000 people in Britain available from May 13.

The family fortune of Sir Paul McCartney has gone up by £170m in a year – from £475m to £665m – thanks largely to the personal wealth of his new wife Nancy Shevell, who has a £150m stakein New England Motor Freight, the haulage business led by her father. Nancy Shevell is vice-president of the New Jersey-based business. Performing and album sales account for the other £20m added to the McCartney fortune in the last year.

David and Victoria Beckham have seen their joint fortune rise by £25m, to £190m, in the last twelve months to put them in the top 10 of the Music Millionaires chart. Former Spice Girl Victoria’s clothing and accessories company was named designer brand of the year at the 2011 British Fashion awards. Husband David has boosted his earnings off the pitch by a further £4m with a new bodywear contract from H&M.

The continued popularity of Coldplay has helped to boost the joint wealth of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow, who also join the ranks of Britain’s 1,000 richest people for the first time with a £72m fortune.

This year The Sunday Times Rich List Music Millionaires Top 50 includes the wealthiest performers from the Republic of Ireland, where the four members and manager of U2 have seen their combined fortune rise by £59m to put them in fifth spot.

Daniel Ek, the Swedish founder of the digital music download service Spotify, joins the Beckhams in the Music Top 10, also with a £190m fortune. The Spotify business is valued at £1.2 billion. Ek, a London-based Arsenal supporter, has a stake worth £190m in the popular music download service which he started in 2008 and was launched in America last year.

The 24^th annual Sunday Times Rich List – the definitive guide to wealth in Britain and Ireland – is published on Sunday, April 29 in an extra 104-page magazine, which profiles the 1,000 richest people and families in the UK and the 250 wealthiest in the island of Ireland. The list is based on identifiable wealth (land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies), and excludes bank accounts (to which the paper has no access).

The Sunday Times Rich List 2012 is compiled by Philip Beresford, the leading authority on British wealth, and edited by Ian Coxon.