How Much Mariah Carey Makes With ‘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 royalties, please?”

No, my improvised lyrics aren’t as catchy as the opening lines of Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the 1994 jingle that became nearly ubiquitous on the airwaves around the holidays.

But they do ask a question that delves into the black box of music industry economics: How much money does the song make for Carey, the song’s performer and so-called ‘Queen of Christmas‘, every year?

Earnings estimates by Billboard suggest she’ll make between $2.7 and $3.3 million in 2022 from song downloads and on-demand streaming, for example. It rules out other potentially lucrative revenue streams such as Christmas TV specials.

But it’s difficult to know an exact amount, especially since the contractual details between Carey, her music label and the song publishers aren’t public, experts say. The pop star’s publicist, Chris Chambers, did not return a request for comment from 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 the Donahue Fitzgerald law firm.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a Christmas juggernaut.

Spotify announced this month that the national anthem became the first-ever Christmas song to surpass 2 billion global streams. It has been the No. 1 song worldwide on Christmas Day every year since 2016, according to Spotify.

The song’s popularity has only grown, with total audio streams in the US rising 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, the song’s total U.S. streams were down 8% this year compared to 2023, Billboard estimates. That’s partly a function of the shorter holiday season due to a late Thanksgiving, experts say.)

The song “is a money machine,” says George Howard, a professor at 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 valuing music copyrights, estimates that the chart-topper earns between $2 and $4 million in gross revenue annually.

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

Over its thirty-year existence, the song has generated about $103 million in revenue, the law firm estimates. The projections include global streaming and non-streaming revenue sources, according to Manatt, who created Billboard’s royalty calculator.

According to the calculator, the song’s 2 billion global Spotify streams alone generated $9.8 million in royalties.

But Carey only gets a portion of that revenue.

The music rights ecosystem is notoriously complicated.

Money flows to many contributors, such as writers, artists, producers, sound mixers and record labels. Payouts to each person can vary from issue to issue depending on contract terms, experts say.

The terms of Carey’s royalty deals are not publicly known.

The singer likely gets a “larger share” of the revenue than most artists, Howard said. That’s due to Carey’s multiple credits on the song: she’s listed as the sole artist, as well as 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 a major factor in Carey’s final paycheck.

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

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

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

Carey “owns the copyright on both the song and the audio recording, so she gets paid from both sides,” Howard said.

“She gets paid six ways through Sunday,” he said.

A song’s writers and publishers — not the artists — get the royalties when a song is played in a public place, such as on TV and radio, or in restaurants and stores, experts say. The U.S. is one of the few countries with such a rule, Howard said.

This means that Carey (and Afanasieff, her co-writer) will receive royalties whenever 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 split their writing credits with publishers including Universal Music, Sony Music and Kobalt Songs Music Publishing, according to to ASCAP.

However, recording songs generally generates four to five times the revenue of songwriting, Bromley said.

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

The artist’s take on recording revenue versus the label can vary widely, from 20% to 90%, depending on the contract, Bromley said. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was released by Columbia Records, owned by Sony Music.

Afanasieff, Sony Music and Kobalt Songs Music Publishing did not return requests for comment. Universal Music Publishing Group declined comment.

Experts note that revenue from record sales and licensing can vary widely from year to year, while streaming and performance revenue is more predictable.

Of the aforementioned estimated $8.5 million in worldwide revenue and publishing rights that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” earned in 2022, the Carey master recording grossed $5.3 million and publishing rights accounted for the remaining $3.2 million, according to Billboard.

What was Carey’s cut?

She earned about $1.9 million of the master recording revenue, Billboard estimated, while her label, Sony, kept the remaining $3.4 million.

Carey also earned an estimated $1.6 million from the publications, assuming she and Afanasieff split the writing 50-50. But her take-home pay would have been lower depending on her publishing deal — perhaps ranging from about $795,000 to $1.4 million, according to Billboard.

All told, these estimates suggest that Carey will have earned between $2.7 and $3.3 million from recording and publishing in 2022.

This excludes revenue from financial arrangements for Christmas TV special soundtracks, which Billboard says are likely to be lucrative. It also excludes covers of the song.

“There’s a lot of revenue open up” for a pop star who is almost “co-branded” at Christmas, including deals on brand endorsements, live performances, cosmetics, homewares and clothing, Manatt Entertainment’s Bromley said.

The song is the gift that will keep on giving for years to come, experts said.

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

In the case of a collaborative 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 continue to rake in royalties for decades until the song eventually enters the public domain, she said. If that happens, the song would join the ranks of Christmas classics like “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which are generally freely shared and modified.