Slade's £1/2million merry Christmas: Band's 1973 hit has already earned huge sum in royalties this year... and could add a further £300,000 by the 25th

 

Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody has earned more than £500,000

Slade, The Pogues and Mariah Carey earn small fortunes

Office party favourite Last Christmas by Wham! was fourth

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-25...0-000-25th.html

Edited December 11, 201311 yr by vidcapper

I'm astonished at these numbers - I'd have guessed at 'a few tens of thousands'. :o

It's all about the rights - Noddy Holder and Jimmy Lea each earn a fortune from Merry Xmas Everybody every year as they wrote the song but I don't think Dave Hill and Don Powell get anything.

 

Funny that Dave and Don are the two that are still in the band, touring endlessly on the retro circuit to earn a crust, eh?

 

And, for no reason in particular, here is a picture of them from the mid 80s when Noddy opened a popular ladies hairdressing salon...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Slade1986promophoto.jpg

I'm not surprised by those figures at all - if anything, I thought they're a bit low, as I always thought the biggest Christmas hits generate about £1m a year in royalties.

Edited December 11, 201311 yr by Mango Ho Ho

I'm astonished at these numbers - I'd have guessed at 'a few tens of thousands'. :o

 

I'm not surprised at all. There's "underground" musicians who are able to make a living without ever getting in the charts at all, so these huge mainstream songs which are known all over the world will likely be making loads.

 

The royalties from sales are usually just a tiny proportion. You also get royalties every time a song is played on the radio, on a TV show, in a shopping centre, in a club, in a restaurant, etc. Even a "flop" song that doesn't sell very much could make a lot of money if it was a massive club hit, for example, or was used in a hit movie or TV show. Imagine how much the theme tune to Friends will have made! :lol:

 

http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/rights-loyalties-slide.jpg

Edited December 11, 201311 yr by Eric_Blob

i read this as well, very interesting and shows how important it is for any artist to negotiate favourable royalty rights. I believe Noddy Holder owns the full rights for his bands track and so he gets the full royalties!!

I'm not surprised at all. There's "underground" musicians who are able to make a living without ever getting in the charts at all, so these huge mainstream songs which are known all over the world will likely be making loads.

 

The royalties from sales are usually just a tiny proportion. You also get royalties every time a song is played on the radio, on a TV show, in a shopping centre, in a club, in a restaurant, etc. Even a "flop" song that doesn't sell very much could make a lot of money if it was a massive club hit, for example, or was used in a hit movie or TV show. Imagine how much the theme tune to Friends will have made! :lol:

 

http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/rights-loyalties-slide.jpg

 

Very interesting diagram - must print it for reference.

Noddy Holder and Jim Lea own the Slade catalogue via their company Whild John music (it's named after their middle names) and yes as the songwriters they get a bigger share of anything. And of course they make money off cover versions too, but the other two do still get something.

 

Noddy Holder and Jim Lea own the Slade catalogue via their company Whild John music (it's named after their middle names) and yes as the songwriters they get a bigger share of anything. And of course they make money off cover versions too, but the other two do still get something.

 

That's good to hear. I just thought it interesting that Noddy and Jim have given up the band while the other two are ploughing on.

Interesting reading. For example is Slade's song really that much ahead of most other Xmas songs. Wizzard's hit is nowhere to be seen in the list and on the figures given that would make Slade's song receiving 20 plus times more airplay every year - which is hardly likely. Wizzard's hit has favourable viewing figures on youtube and has charted above Slade these last few Xmases I think. Plus both songs are usually on the same compilations. Anyone else think these figures are very much a guesstimate, and, or there is missing data?