How streaming killed the Christmas charts - Mariah Carey’s seasonal ubiquity illustrates the new economics of music:
Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You is often quipped to be her pension fund—and rightly so:
In 2017 Mariah Carey crept in at number nine with her massive 23-year-old hit, “All I Want for Christmas is You”. Since then the oldies have shuffled relentlessly forward (see chart). Last Christmas half of America’s top ten songs were more than half a century old. Indeed Ms Carey, then aged 51, was one of the younger artists: two of her fellow chart toppers were drawing a pension; three had joined the heavenly chorus.
The resurgence of nostalgic tunes is not just because the music industry struggles to churn out new holiday classics, but also because Billboard has tweaked its algorithm:
Old hits have been revived by new technology. Billboard’s charts used to be based predominantly on record sales, as well as incorporating the number of radio plays. But since 2015 its evolving formula has tended to give the greatest weight to the number of listens on streaming services like Spotify. The result is that records like “Jingle Bell Rock” (1957) by American country singer Bobby Helms, which no longer generate many physical-format sales but which still get streamed on repeat in December, have been catapulted up the rankings.
Indeed, these old tunes are still turning a profit:
Streamers pay rights-holders a small sum for every play of a song, so old favourites whose physical sales had long ago dwindled have returned to earning a steady income.