Turns out Mariah Carey has copped more royalties from her 1994 banger “All I Want For Christmas Is You” than most of us could make in seven lifetimes. We’re all in the wrong business, people! We should be out there cranking out Christmas carols!
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mariah’s royalties from the song have clocked over $106 million.
Additionally, back in 2016 The Economist estimated the song was raking in $3.6 million annually. Yes, annually.
These figures took into account endorsements, streaming, licensing it to movies, tv shows and ads as well as public appearances.
Holy shit.
I like to think most of this revenue was pocketed from her sponsored menu at McDonalds called the “Mariah Menu“. The menu featured a different free item each day (ooo presents!) with a $1 minimum spend.
That McDonalds endorsement confirmed my theory that businesses will literally do anything to squeeze this song into their marketing by any means necessary.
NGL though, I fully support it. More Mariah please.
But wait, that’s not all. Let’s figure out what “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is making just from Spotify.
As per a study completed back in 2017 by The Economist, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” raked in 60 million dollars from *just* Spotify plays.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has cranked up 210m plays on Spotify and $60m in royalties https://t.co/DpJ0YEMzJi
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 5, 2017
However, this was back in 2017 when the track had just north (pole) of 200 million listens. At the time of writing, the track now has 1,285,909,424 streams.
If we do some calculations using a Spotify earnings estimator website, we can estimate that Mariah has taken home an estimated $4,503,332 AUD for that track alone.
Obviously this is before managers, labels and publicists take their cut but still, pop off queen.
Go buy yourself 4,503,332 $1 Macca’s frozen cokes to celebrate.
So if you find yourself sitting around the dinner table on Christmas day pondering “just how much in royalties does Mariah make from this banger?”, now you know.
May “All I Want For Christmas Is You” seasonally top the charts each and every year for all eternity.
