How much Mariah Carey makes from ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’

“I don’t want much for Christmas / There’s only one thing I need / An answer to just one question / An estimate of Mariah Carey’s song royalties, please?”

No, my improvised lyrics aren’t as sinful as the opening lines of Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the 1994 jingle that has become practically ubiquitous on the airwaves of the holiday season .

But they ask a question that probes into the black box of the economics of the music industry: How much money does the song earn for Carey, the performer of the song and the so-called “Queen of Christmas“, every year?

Revenue estimates from Billboard suggests 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 such as Christmas TV specials.

But it’s hard to know an exact sum, in large part because the contractual details between Carey, her music label and the song publisher are not public, experts said. The pop star’s publicist, Chris Chambers, did not return a request for comment submitted to his firm, The Chamber Group, about his royalties.

“Whatever it is, it’s a lot of money,” said Natasha Chee, a music, entertainment and intellectual property attorney at the law firm Donahue Fitzgerald.

Spotify announced this month the anthem became the first holiday song to surpass 2 billion global streams. It has been the No. 1 song in the world on Christmas Day every year since 2016, Spotify said.

The popularity of the tune has only grown: Total audio streams in the United States have grown to 249 million in 2023, 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% from 2023, Billboard estimated. That’s partly a function of the shorter holiday season since Thanksgiving ended, said the experts.)

The song “is a money machine,” said George Howard, a professor at Berklee College of Music and former president of Rykodisc, an independent record company. “It’s a real phenomenon,” he said.

Howard, who also does consulting work to value music copyrights, estimates the top-cart makes $2 million to $4 million in annual gross revenue.

Similarly, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which specializes in music industry law, estimates that success generates $3.4 million a year.

In its 30 years of 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 royalty calculator.

The song’s 2 billion global Spotify streams earned just $9.8 million in royalties, according to the calculator.

But Carey only gets a portion of those earnings.

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Music royalties are different from those of other works such as books or photography.

That’s because there are two distinct royalty streams — one for musical composition and the other for sound recording, said Jordan Bromley, partner and head of Manatt Entertainment. Think of the former as the sheet music you hear on your piano (the songwriting), and the latter as the recorded song you hear, he said.

Each has its own real structure. Royalties for music composition are received by songwriters and publishers, while those for sound recording are paid to the songwriters and their labels, Howard said.

Carey “has the copyright to the song and the sound recording, so she’s getting paid on both sides,” Howard said.

“It paid six ways until Sunday,” he said.

The authors and publishers of a song – and not its performers – receive royalties when a song plays in a public space, such as on TV and radio, or in restaurants and stores, experts said. The United States is one of the few countries to have such a rule, Howard said.

This means that Carey (and Afanasieff, her co-writer) receives royalties every time a cover version of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is played in the public domain. More than 150 artists have covered the song, according to to ASCAP, a performing rights organization.

Carey and Afanasieff share writing credits with publishers including Universal Music, Sony Music and Kobalt Songs Music Publishing, according to to the ASCAP.

However, song recording usually brings in four to five times the revenue of songwriting, Bromley said.

“If you’re a songwriter without a record deal, it’s hard to make a living even if you make hits,” he said.

The artist’s take on the recording revenue related to the label can range widely, from 20% 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 did not return requests for comment. Universal Music Publishing Group declined comment.

Copyright for works published after January 1, 1978 generally remains intact for the life of the author, plus 70 years after the author’s death, according to Donahue Fitzgerald’s Chee.

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 earn royalties for decades until the song passes into the public domain, he said. When it does, the song joins the ranks of Christmas classics like “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which may be in general. freely shared and adapted.