Slade earn £500,000 every Christmas in royalties
Written by admin on 11th December 2013
Rarely does a new Christmas pop song reach the heights of such classics Merry Xmas Everybody and Fairytale of New York, and the resulting royalties which earn six-figure bonuses for the musicians who created them bear this out.
Analysts using data from the Performing Right Society (PRS), which collects fees when songs are played in public, have estimated the money earned by the likes of Slade and Mariah Carey when their festive songs are broadcast on the radio, internet and TV.
Retro rock band Slade top the list for this year, with an estimated £512,000 coming their way from royalties by the end of 2013 thanks to their 1973 hit, Merry Xmas Everybody. They are followed by The Pogues, whose morose Christmas ballad Fairytale of New York (1987) will bring in £386,270. Mariah Carey is in third place for 1994’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, earning £327,615 in 2013.
Also in the top 10 is Band Aid, Wham!, Shakin’ Stevens and Pretenders, whose 2000 Miles is the only non-festive entry. East 17, who beat Carey to the top of the charts in 1994 with their distinctly un-merry Stay Another Day, are in ninth place earning an estimated £30, 219.
(Source: Telegraph Media Group)
