December is a month for holiday shopping, tree decorating, sledding, baking and general joy. But you know who probably feels the most joy every year when December rolls around? Mariah Carey. As you may have noticed, Mariah Carey’s Christmas classic “All I Want For Christmas” is basically unavoidable between November 30 and December 25 every year. The song is featured in dozens of Christmas movies and is a massive hit around the holidays on streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. In fact, in December 2019 “All I Want For Christmas” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “All I Want For Christmas” was originally released in 1994.
“All I Want For Christmas” was Mariah’s first #1 song since 2008’s “Touch My Body.” It was also the first Christmas hit to make #1 since “The Chipmunk Song” accomplished the feat back in… 1958!
So how did Mariah Carey’s now-classic Christmas song come to exist? And how much money does she make from it every December?
(Photo by James Devaney/WireImage)
All I Want For Christmas… Is Huge Royalty Checks
Back in 1994, 24-year-old Mariah Carey was glowing in the success of her smash hit third studio album “Music Box.” Music Box would eventually go on to sell 38 million copies worldwide, which is enough to make it one of the best selling albums of all time. By my count, Music Box is the 32nd best-selling album in music history.
As you would expect from any good manager/husband/record exec, Tommy was hard at work mapping out the best way for Mariah to follow up that massive hit. And even though Mariah had just firmly established herself as one of the world’s most beloved R&B popstars, Tommy decided her next move should be a Christmas album.
Mariah wasn’t all the idea at all. She felt that a Christmas album was something an artist did at the end of their career, not at the beginning. Typically record companies rushed-out Christmas albums to capitalize on what they feared might be a flash-in-the-pan artist. It was felt desperate at worst and extremely odd at best.
Mariah’s longtime songwriting partner Walter Afanasieff wholeheartedly agreed. They had just put out the album of the decade. Mariah’s career was white hot. Why would they take what they saw as a step way back?
But Tommy Mottola could be persuasive. It probably helped that in addition to being Mariah’s husband, he was also the most powerful person in the music industry.
Oh, and Tommy had one final requirement of the duo.
He didn’t want Mariah and Walter to simply throw together an album that was made up entirely covers of pre-existing Christmas songs. He insisted that they write at least one a new, totally original Christmas tune.
As difficult as that challenge may have been, Tommy knew that writing one Christmas song is a tried and true method for generating tons of money in royalties every year forever.
Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola (Rose Hartman/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
So, in the summer of 1994, Mariah and Walter locked themselves in a studio at The Hit Factory in Manhattan and began putting together an album that eventually would be titled “Merry Christmas.”
One fateful session at the studio in August of 1994, Mariah and Walter started playing around with a “boogie woogie, rock and roll” riff (as he would later describe it). Something clicked.
Call it magic. Luck. Divine intervention… But less than 15 minutes later they had composed the lyrics AND music for what eventually became “All I Want Is You.”
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
Mariah’s “Merry Christmas” was released on October 28, 1994. The album would eventually go on to sell 15 million copies thanks very largely to the smash-hit single, “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Today that track is the best-selling modern-day Christmas song. It’s been featured in movies and covered by dozens of major artists.
As of this writing, “All I Want for Christmas is You” has sold more than 16 million singles worldwide. That makes it the 12th best-selling single in music history.
How Much Money Has The Song Generated For Mariah?
This brings us to the central question of this article. How much does Mariah Carey make in royalties from “All I Want for Christmas is You” every December? And how much has she made to date?
Let’s start with the second question first. To date, “All I Want for Christmas” had generated at least $80 million in total royalties. As the song’s co-writers and co-producers, Mariah and Walter enjoy the lion’s share of the money generated.
And that $80 million is just the revenue generated to far. If the song’s rights were ever offered for sale, one has to assume they would fetch a very high price. Perhaps a 30-40X multiple of its annual revenue. That brings us to the first question: How much does the song generate every year?
Every December, “All I Want for Christmas” generates around $3-4 million in royalties. Mariah Carey’s cut is $600,000 to $1 million.
Using a 30x multiple on $1 million, that’s a $30 million asset under Mariah Carey’s $340 million net worth. Add that to the $80 million the song has generated overall and you understand why this song truly is the gift that keeps on giving.
Not bad for 15 minutes of work 30 years ago!