Insane earnings Christmas stars Mariah Carey and Michael Buble bank each December

While Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year for many, stars like Mariah Carey, Michael Buble — and their financial advisers — have millions more reasons to celebrate.

It’s the happiest time of the year for Mariah Carey, Michael Buble and their financial advisers.

For about two months each year, they are the evergreen queen and king of the Christmas pop parade on services and shopping centre sound systems.

Carey has been the angel atop the Christmas playlist for three decades, with her inescapable song All I Want For Christmas Is You reportedly earning her more than $3.7 million in royalties each year.

Merchandise, television specials and her American Christmas concerts amp up the projected earnings to $10 million. It is estimated the song has generated more than $100 million since it was released in 1994.

And that’s not counting the cover versions which she gets a cut of via publishing royalties; she is credited as the co-writer of the track with American hit maker Walter Afanasieff.

Buble remains the silly season’s swing king on the global album charts with his Christmas record, first released in 2011.

Mariah Carey and Michael Buble are two of Christmas’ biggest stars. Picture: Katie Yu/NBCU

Its tally of more than 12 million copies sold gets a significant boost each year now via hundreds of millions of streams for It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Holly Jolly Christmas and other seasonal standards.

The global Christmas music market is estimated to be worth more than $300 million globally and growing each year, thanks to streaming.

It’s a lucrative annuity for the artists, labels and publishers who made the songs which crowd the annual Christmas top 20 and it’s money for nothing; they don’t have to fork out big dollars for a marketing or promotion push beyond social media blasts as the silly season kicks in.

So it can be tough for an artist like beloved Korean Australian pop star Dami Im to add their Voice to the Christmas choir when everyone is spinning Wham!’s Last Christmas or Brenda Lee’s Rocking Around The Christmas tree, let alone the dozens of versions of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

Michael Buble makes bank each Christmas. Picture: NBC Universal via Getty Images

“It was scary to think about doing another version of those songs; I wanted to be sure of what direction I wanted to go musically so this record is something that I could be proud of in the years to come, not just for this year,” she said.

“There’s so much nostalgia attached to these songs, to my childhood dreams of Christmas like watching snowfall in Korea and seeing Santa, and I could just sing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas forever … it makes me feel like I want to cry, really happy tears.”

Her first record Christmas Songbook puts Im’s jazzy pop style to classics including Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and White Christmas as well as new song Baby’s First Christmas for her and husband Noah Kim’s little boy Harrison.

The 2023 Masked Singer winner, who performed as the very Christmassy Snow Fox, wrote her new addition to the seasonal canon with Aussie pop legend Rick Price, who is now based in Nashville and also produced the album.

“This is Harrison’s second Christmas officially, but it does feel like it’s his first time where he just knows what he’s seeing and gets excited by the carols and the fairy lights and Santa,” she said.

Australian singer-songwriter Sia has released Christmas music. Picture: Angela Weiss / AFP)

“Even when he sees me on the television or when he sees himself, he gets excited, and that’s a recent thing.

“I’m going to try and take him to the Carols events I’m singing at to see if he can stay awake and not be angry.”

Spotify Australia’s Head of Music Alicia Sbrugnera said while the classics dominate fan listening, the raft of new Christmas albums released by Aussie superstars including Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes and Delta Goodrem are hugely popular.

“Newer Christmas albums are also experiencing a growth in listeners as the holiday season starts to peak,” she said.

“In the past month alone, Jimmy Barnes’ 2022 Christmas albumBlue Christmas has seen a 959 per cent month-on-month increase in streams on Spotify, while Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train has seen a 580 per cent increase in streams. Similarly, Delta Goodrem’s 2020 Christmas album Only Santa Knows has seen a 467 per cent month-on-month increase in streams.”

Friends for Christmas, the much-loved collection of standards from John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John, has been reissued on vinyl for the first time this year.

Sbrugnera said while committed Christmas fans start streaming seasonal playlists as early as September, the silly season traditionally kicks in on the platform from November 1.

“This year our Spotify Christmas playlists – Christmas Hits, Christmas Favourites and Christmas Pop – saw a 73 per cent increase in daily active users on that date, while Spotify’s Christmas Hits playlist is the fifth most listened to playlist in Australia. We then find the Christmas music cheer tends to tail off in January,” she said.

The blue chip stocks of the holiday music market are already flooding the streaming ecosystem.

Ed Sheeran and Elton John released a Christmas song. Picture: Supplied

Carey has already landed in the top 50 songs played on Spotify here with up to 133,000 daily streams, followed by Wham! on 114,000 streams, Brenda Lee’s Rocking Around The Christmas tree on 104,000 streams, the classic Bobby Helms’ version of Jingle Bell Rock scoring 86,000, Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me was getting 81,000 daily spins and Buble’s It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas was played 78,000 times one day last week.

Barnes, with his Tin Lids 2.0, and Kelly have refreshed their Christmas records with new offerings from Cher (her album was released on October 20), a Jimmy Fallon and Meghan Trainor song Wrap Me Up and the Bon Jovi track Christmas Isn’t Christmas.

And Friends for Christmas, the much-loved collection of standards from John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John, has been reissued on vinyl for the first time this year.