00:00 Nearly 30 years after Mariah Carey released All I Want for Christmas Is You, the five-time
00:10 Grammy Award winner is still reaping the benefits of the instant Christmas classic.
00:15 Billboard reported last year Carey grossed $1.55 million in annual recording royalties
00:21 from each time the song's master recording is played or sold, plus as much as $830,000
00:28 in publishing royalties before fees for the use of the music.
00:32 Carey pulls in an estimated millions of dollars in royalties each year off the holiday anthem
00:37 and launches an annual holiday tour around the song, called Merry Christmas One and All.
00:42 The tour runs between November 15th and December 17th this year.
00:47 All I Want for Christmas Is You is the highest-charting holiday single by a solo artist on the Billboard
00:52 US Hot 100, according to Guinness World Records.
00:55 The song, which was released in 1994, also became the first holiday single certified
01:00 Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2021.
01:05 Carey, Sony Music, and All I Want for Christmas Is You co-writer Walter Afanasyev were named
01:11 in a $20 million copyright infringement lawsuit last year by songwriter Andy Stone, who claimed
01:16 defendants made a derivative version of Stone's 1989 song by the same name, which was released
01:21 under the artist's name, Vince Vance and the Valiants.
01:24 Stone's attorneys voluntarily dismissed the suit last November, but filed another
01:29 lawsuit in November of 2023.
01:32 Carey's legal team has not commented on the recent lawsuit.
01:35 All I Want for Christmas Is You has been covered by dozens of artists, including Michael Buble,
01:40 Dolly Parton, Ingrid Michelson, Shania Twain, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Lady A. Carey
01:46 also re-released the song in 2011 with Justin Bieber.
01:51 As of 2017, the song had generated over $60 million through royalties since its release,
01:56 according to an estimate by The Economist.
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