Want to Strike It Rich? Create an Evergreen!
Christmas music is big business. Songwriters work every year to create new holiday staples and the few who succeed can expect to reap rewards and royalties for a long time. That’s because Christmas music is cyclical, the gift that keeps on giving or “evergreens” in music industry parlance.
It has been all over the news lately, Mariah Carey could quit working right now and easily live off the money she makes on her holiday hit, “All I Want for Christmas”. Carey was 24 when she wrote and recorded the song and reports say she has earned an estimated $60 million in royalties since it was released in 1994.
If you grew up in the United States, you probably know these staples:
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie in 1934, covered over 200 times
Little Drummer Boy, written by Katherine K. Davis in the 1940’s, #1 on Billboard charts in 2013, thanks to a Pentatonix cover
White Christmas, written by Irving Berlin in the 1940’s, the best-selling single ever with over 50 million copies sold.
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, written by Johnny Marks in 1949
Frosty the Snowman, written by Jack Nelson and Steve Rollins in 1950
And who can forget these earworms from the 50’s that are still around today: Blue Christmas, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, and There is No Place Like Home for the Holidays
All of these songs were released as pop or novelty songs and became staples over time. And, since the compositions and recordings are still protected by copyright, the revenue continues to stream in each year.
Many songwriters leave money on the table if they don’t perform the songs they write. The most lucrative Christmas songs are the ones where the writer is also the performer, hence Carey’s financial success because as one of the writers she is paid royalties on the publishing side in addition to what she earns for her recordings of the song. Of course, she’s also making money from merchandise, concerts, specials, books and animated films tied to the song.
The good news is that if you can write a song that becomes a Christmas staple you might be able to live off the royalties for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, the odds of success are not good. Even talented writers and performers who find limited pop success one year watch their song fall off the radar screen the next.
Still, how sweet the thought of writing the next evergreen, like so many visions of sugar plums dancing in your head. Especially when you see an artist, like Carey, “go viral” on their first attempt. It’s like winning the lottery: Christmas comes around each year, the public’s appetite for holiday music is huge, and history shows us that there are big winners. But as the saying goes, “you have to play to win.”
Christmas 2022 is a year away, start writing!
For more about Christmas and Copyright, visit PlagiarismToday, 10 Christmas Copyright Stories by Jonathan Bailey, December 15, 2021