How much do musicians make for Christmas songs?
It comes every year, yet people still seem surprised when they walk past a shop in November and hear Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ playing. As the nights grow dark and cold, Christmas lights are donned on every house and highstreet for as far as the eye can see, and people prep their chimneys for a visit from old Saint Nick on December 25th, we are bombarded with a barrage of merry tunes for the best part of two months.
There are two different camps for listening to Christmas music: those who love it and those who hate it. For some, the minute sleigh bells can be heard and sweet-sounding songs from the likes of Paul McCartney, The Darkness, and The Pogues start getting played in pubs, shops and on TV, music has officially peaked. Then, there are others who hear the same thing and want to claw their ears off from frustration.
There is no perfect time for people to start listening to Christmas music. People are divided in opinion, as some believe they can become merry as soon as Thanksgiving has passed, others strictly think it should wait until December, and some would push it further back than that.
According to data, Spotify tends to see a spike in Christmas music around November 13th, which is likely when people begin to give in to temptation and steadily get into the festive spirit. Regardless of when you do or don’t start listening to Christmas, there is one fact that remains the same: the songs get played a great deal every year.
Some Christmas songs have been classics for decades, and regardless of what is happening in the world, how depressing or uplifting things may be, they will be played. Christmas songs remain a constant in an ever-changing and persistently volatile world; the only thing more definite than them is death. But keeping it light, it begs the question, how much are artists making thanks to their songs being played on the radio by individuals, stores and bars for a solid two months out of every year?
So, how much do artists get paid for their Christmas songs?
Naturally, the amount that an artist makes for their Christmas songs depends on how popular that specific Christmas song is. If a track is played a great deal, the song will earn more, but if it only creeps up occasionally and finds itself at the bottom of most people’s holiday playlists, it won’t earn as much.
To give you some ballpark figures, based on streaming money and royalties, Mariah Carey is expected to make an eye-watering £2.4million every year because of her song ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’. This will be even higher in 2024, as it has been confirmed Carey will be performing before Netflix’s NFL games, and her fee for that will be very high.
Some other big Christmas songs also make good money but don’t come close to doing Mariah’s numbers. For instance, Slade earns around £520,000 a year with ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’. Meanwhile, Wham, The Pogues and Bing Crosby make upwards of £300,000 yearly.
It’s impossible to give a definite figure on what artists will make because of their Christmas songs, but if an artist is lucky enough to have their music be considered quintessential Christmas listening, they could be making millions, like Mariah Carey is.
