Streaming ofawhite christmas
Adele, elton and ed aim to top the festive charts but they face some competition from the hits of yesteryear, writes JennY MORRiSOn
SO, THIS is Christmas – and the annual battle for the yuletide charts No1 is well under way. Adele, Elton John and Ed Sheeran are among the music royalty looking to take the crown of having this year’s festive hit with their recent releases – 70 years after the first Christmas No1 was declared in 1951.
But thanks to streaming services our much-loved favourite hits may be just as likely to top the Christmas charts.
Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You has already hit the top spot when it comes to the most profitable Christmas song on streaming service Spotify.
The songstress diva might not “want a lot for Christmas” but her festive jingle, which she says was inspired by her tough childhood and took her just 15 minutes to write, has earned her more than £2.8million in Spotify streams and counting.
Bing Crosby’s White Christmas is the biggest selling single of all time, with physical astonishing sales of more than 50million copies.
But in the streaming charts, the Academy Award-winning tune, written by Irving Berlin for the film Holiday Inn, is pipped into fifth place.
Last Christmas by Wham takes the No2 spot on the chart for streaming-related earnings, while Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande is the third most successful.
Michael Bublé has three songs in the UK’s top 40 – It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Holly Jolly Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
The profits of these three songs combined are £2,833,203.41, while Michael Bublé’s Christmas (Deluxe Special Edition) has made more than £7,013,775 from Spotify streams alone.
Other Christmas songs that make the chart include Shakin’ Steven’s Merry Christmas Everyone, written by Scot Bob
Heatlie, The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York featuring Kirsty MacCall, and 2000 Miles by The Pretenders.
New research conducted by casino comparison site CasinoBee analysed Spotify data to establish which of the UK’s favourite Christmas songs produced the most profit and which artist takes home the largest cheque each Christmas.
Every stream of a song earns an artist just £0.0028.
But Mariah’s iconic song has been streamed more than a billion times. Commenting on the study, a spokesperson from CasinoBee said: “Christmas songs are a staple of the festive season and for an artist to have a popular festive hit can prove to be incredibly lucrative.
“Not only can revenue from streaming be substantial but a popular Christmas song can be used for commercial purposes which can bring in even more profit for the artist and record label.”