How Mariah Carey still makes millions off her 1994 Christmas hit
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Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is the gift that keeps on giving.
The seemingly timeless tune finally reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 list — a historic feat 25 years in the making. In fact, the song is still pumping out money quicker than you can say “Happy Holidays.”
According to a 2016 study by The Economist, Mariah Carey has made $60 million from the song in just royalties alone.
Today, that number is suspected to be even higher, as streaming continues to balloon royalty figures and add passive revenue to artists’ paychecks.
Since being added to music streaming platform Spotify (SPOT), Carey’s song has already earned over $2 million in royalties, according to a study by Broadband Deals — and it’s estimated to bring in an additional $600,000 between November 2019 and this Christmas.
Digital music also plays a role in the song maintaining its momentum.
Currently, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” sits at 96 out of 100 on Spotify's Popularity Index — a normalized metric the platform uses to curate playlists. It only bottomed out at 61 in July 2019, according to music analytic website Chartmetric.
That means people are listening to the holiday track all year round — although the song’s peaks during November and December are hard to ignore.
According to data compiled by Nielsen, there was a nearly 400% spike in on-demand streaming the week after Halloween — and Carey might’ve had something to do with it.
Just one day after Halloween, the diva of high notes posted a teaser video to her Instagram, where she falls asleep in her costume at 11:59 p.m. — only to be awakened by a call from Santa promptly at midnight as her hit song plays in the background.
Coupled with the fact that the track has inspired a children’s book, an animated film and a new Amazon Music (AMZN) documentary, the post sent fans into a premature Christmas frenzy, just in time for the singer to climb to the top of the Billboard charts.
Talk about a ‘ho-ho-ho’-ole lot of marketing gold.
Alexandra Canal is a Producer at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193
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