What Do Christmas Songs Earn in Royalties?

What do Christmas songs earn in each year? Find out which holiday hits rake in millions and the secrets behind their lasting success.

What Do Christmas Songs Earn in Royalties?

by Bobby Owsinski via Music 3.0

Just about every artist and songwriter wants a hit holiday song that plays year after year no matter what, since the Christmas song royalties can be substantial. As we all know, it’s easier said than done to make it to the hallowed level, but the ones that do get ingrained in the minds of listeners over the years. The Holiday Hits Forecast 2024 by Jackpot City has been tracking the number of plays for the most popular Christmas songs on Spotify from November 1st to predict 2024’s festive favorites by Christmas Day and how much these could earn in royalty payments for artists. 

It turns out that 2024’s top 20 most popular Christmas songs on Spotify could earn singers up to $88 million in streaming royalties by December 27th, with one singer set to earn up to $7 million. Here are the Top 10 Most Popular Christmas Songs predicted for 2024 with the estimated royalty payouts.

1. ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’, Mariah Carey – $7.34 million from over 1.83 billion streams.
2. ‘Last Christmas’, Wham! – $5.9 million from over 1.47 billion streams.
3. ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’, Brenda Lee – $5.35 million from over 1.33 billion streams.
4. ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, Bobby Helms – $4.61 million from over 1.15 billion streams.
5. ‘Underneath The Tree’, Kelly Clarkson – $3.71 million from over 929,000 streams.
6. ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year’, Andy Williams – $3.62 million from over 905,000 streams
7. ‘Let It Snow!’, Dean Martin – $3.61 million from over 904,000 streams.
8. ‘Snowman’, Sia – $3.54 million from over 886,000 streams.
9. ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’, Michael Bublé – $3.19 million from over 798,000 streams.
10. ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas’, Michael Bublé – $3.15 million from over 789,000 streams.

A couple of things jump out here. You can tell that this chart only looks at Spotify as Andy Williams “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” seems to get way more play than all the others thanks to multiple television commercials, and also starting earlier in the season around Thanksgiving. 

Second, I know that Wham!’s “Last Christmas” will get a billion and a half streams, but this is a song that I almost never hear. In fact, I can’t even remember how it goes.

Then there’s Michael Bublé’s remakes of “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas” that finally got us away from the dated versions by Berle Ives and Perry Como. I’m not sure which versions I like better though.

Finally, it’s being predicted that Sabrina Carpenter might also come to dominate the festive season with plays of her song “Nonsense Christmas,” so there’s another newbie joining the group.

The good thing is that there are new Holiday songs that are breaking through our collective consciousness, but it’s also nice to hear the same old standards as well. That means some nice Christmas song royalties for all involved.

Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on music production, music, the music business, music AI, and social media.