“I don’t want a lot for Christmas / There is just one thing I need / An answer to just one question / An estimate of Mariah Carey’s song royalties, please?”
No, my makeshift lyrics aren’t as catchy as the opening lines of Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the 1994 jingle that became practically ubiquitous over the airwaves around holiday season.
But they do pose a question that probes into the black box of music-industry economics: How much money does the song earn for Carey, the song’s performer and so-called “Queen of Christmas,” each year?
Revenue estimates by Billboard suggest she made perhaps $2.7 million to $3.3 million in 2022, for example, from song downloads and on-demand streaming. It excludes other potentially lucrative revenue streams like Christmas TV specials.
But it’s hard to know a precise sum, largely because contractual details between Carey, her music label and song publishers aren’t public, experts said. The pop star’s publicist, Chris Chambers, didn’t return a request for comment submitted to his firm, The Chamber Group, about her royalties.
“Whatever it is, it’s a lot of money,” said Natasha Chee, a music, entertainment and intellectual property attorney at law firm Donahue Fitzgerald.
The song may have earned $103 million since 1994
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a yuletide juggernaut.
Spotify announced this month that the anthem was the first-ever holiday song to surpass 2 billion global streams. It has been the No. 1 song globally on Christmas Day each year since 2016, Spotify said.
The tune’s popularity has only grown: Total U.S. audio streams rose to 249 million in 2023, up about 49% from 167 million in 2019, according to Luminate, which tracks music industry data.
(As of Dec. 12, total U.S. streams of the song this year were down 8% relative to 2023, Billboard estimated. That’s partly a function of the shorter holiday season from a late Thanksgiving, experts said.)
The song “is a money machine,” said George Howard, a professor at the Berklee College of Music and former president of Rykodisc, an independent record label. “It’s a real phenomenon,” he said.
Howard, who also does consulting work to value music copyrights, estimates the chart-topper makes $2 million to $4 million in annual gross revenue.
Similarly, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which specializes in music industry law, estimates the hit generates $3.4 million a year.
Over its 30-year existence, the song has made about $103 million in earnings, the law firm estimates. The projections include global streaming and non-streaming revenue sources, according to Manatt, which created Billboard’s royalty calculator.
The song’s 2 billion global Spotify streams alone earned $9.8 million in royalties, according to the calculator.
But Carey only gets a portion of those earnings.
Why Carey is likely getting paid ‘six ways to Sunday’
The ecosystem of music royalties is notoriously convoluted.
Money flows to many contributors, like writers, performers, producers, sound mixers and record labels. Payouts to each person can vary from song to song, depending on contractual terms, experts said.
The terms of Carey’s royalty deals aren’t public knowledge.
The singer is likely getting a “bigger chunk” of revenue than most artists, Howard said. That’s because of Carey’s multiple credits on the song: She’s listed as the sole performer, as well as its co-writer and co-producer. (Walter Afanasieff is the other co-writer and co-producer.)
Such a multitude of credits is unusual to see, Howard said. And it’s an important factor in Carey’s ultimate take-home pay.
Music royalties are different from those of other works like books or photography.
That’s because there are two distinct royalty streams — one for music composition and another for sound recording, said Jordan Bromley, partner and head of Manatt Entertainment. Think of the former like the sheet music sitting on your piano (the songwriting), and the latter as the recorded song that you hear, he said.
Each has its own royalty structure. The royalties for music composition are received by songwriters and publishers, while those for sound recording are paid to song performers and their labels, Howard said.
Carey “has both the copyright to the song and the sound recording, so she’s getting paid on both sides,” Howard said.
“She’s getting paid six ways to Sunday,” he said.
A song’s writers and publishers — and not its performers — get the royalties when a song plays in a public space, such as on TV and radio, or in restaurants and retail stores, experts said. The U.S. is one of the few countries to have such a rule, Howard said.
This means that Carey (and Afanasieff, her co-writer) gets royalties whenever a cover version of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” plays in the public domain. Over 150 performers have covered the song, according to ASCAP, a performing rights organization.
Carey and Afanasieff split their writing credits with publishers including Universal Music, Sony Music and Kobalt Songs Music Publishing, according to ASCAP.
However, song recording generally brings in four to five times the revenue of songwriting, Bromley said.
“If you’re a songwriter with no record revenue, it’s hard to make a living even if you’re making hits,” he said.
The artist’s take of the recording revenue relative to the label’s can swing widely, anywhere from 20% up to 90%, depending on the contract, Bromley said. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was released by Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony Music.
Afanasieff, Sony Music and Kobalt Songs Music Publishing didn’t return requests for comment. Universal Music Publishing Group declined comment.
Why Carey may have made over $2.7 million in 2022
Experts note that earnings from record sales and licensing can vary greatly from year to year, while revenue from streaming and performance is more predictable.
Of the aforementioned estimated $8.5 million in global revenue and publishing royalties that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” earned in 2022, the Carey master recording brought in $5.3 million and publishing royalties accounted for the remaining $3.2 million, Billboard said.
What was Carey’s cut?
She made about $1.9 million of the master recording revenue, Billboard estimated, while her label, Sony, kept the other $3.4 million.
Carey also earned an estimated $1.6 million of the publishing, assuming she and Afanasieff split the writing 50-50. But her take-home pay would have been less, depending on her publishing deal — perhaps ranging from about $795,000 to $1.4 million, Billboard said.
All told, these estimates suggest Carey may have made about $2.7 million to $3.3 million from recording and publishing in 2022.
This excludes revenue from any financial arrangements for soundtracks from Christmas TV specials, which are likely lucrative, according to Billboard. It also excludes cover versions of the song.
“There’s a ton of revenue that opens up” for a pop star who is almost “co-branded” with Christmas, including deals for brand endorsements, live performances, cosmetics, home goods and apparel, Manatt Entertainment’s Bromley said.
The gift that keeps giving
The song is the gift that will keep keep on giving for years, experts said.
The copyright for works published after Jan. 1, 1978, generally remains intact for the author’s lifetime, plus 70 years after the author’s death, according to Chee of Donahue Fitzgerald.
In the case of a joint work with two or more authors, such as “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the rule applies to the last surviving author.
That means Carey’s estate will likely rake in royalties for decades, until the song eventually passes into the public domain, she said. When that happens, the song would join the ranks of Christmas classics like “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which can generally be freely shared and adapted.
