Christmas Hits - the song that keeps on giving.

Rocker

Song royalties is an element that never crossed my mind until a few days ago, a discussion about this took place on a radio show. For most of the better known Christmas songs, the rewards are simply astonishing. A Christmas song that gets added to the playlist, which repeats very often, continues to pay royalties to the singer(s), the song writer and the estate of both for as long as the song gets played (especially on the airwaves).  Downloads pay less but if enough downloads take place, it all adds up. 

It might be a bit late for me but some of you younger guys could do worse than think about this and see if you could write the next ‘White Christmas’. Get it right and you will never need to work again. 

fretmeister

Somebody doesn't know how much Spotify pays.

darthed1981

fretmeister said:

Somebody doesn't know how much Spotify pays.

It isn't just Spotify - have a look how much a play on BBC Radio 2 or a big local commercial station can get you.

...and as it goes, get 50 million plays on Spotify over Xmas (which the big ones, Slade, Carey, Wham etc do) and you get somewhere between 150000 and 200000 quid - several years of the average UK salary.

Still well worth having a big Xmas hit...

Pjon

Guesstimates from The Independent:

1. Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody: £500,000
2. The Pogues - Fairy Tale of New York: £400,000
3. Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You: £376,000
4. Bing Crosby - White Christmas: £328,000
5. Wham! - Last Christmas: £300,000
6. Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime: £260,000
7. Jona Lewie - Stop The Cavalry: £120,000
8. The Pretenders - 2000 Miles: £102,000
9. Cliff Richard - Mistletoe And Wine: £100,000
10. East 17 - (Tony Mortimer) - Stay Another Day: £97,000

That's per year and may be on the low side.

NickL

There's a reason Noddy Holder refers to Merry Christmas Everybody as his pension fund.