Much of her current success, of course, rests on the foundation of her earlier career. With 18 No. 1 Billboard hits, she holds the record for a solo artist. In 2001, piled high with Grammy nominations and platinum records, she signed an $80 million, five-album contract with EMI. At the time it was one of the largest record deals for a female singer, second only to Whitney Houston’s $100 million contract with Arista Records. “She’s the last of a dying breed,” says Jeff Rabhan, chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. “A pop diva put on a pedestal. That doesn’t happen anymore.”
Carey did a memorable job recording hits like Heartbreaker and Always Be My Baby, but that’s not what keeps her flush. It’s that she wrote her own lyrics. “If you’re just the artist, you live off record sales, but as a songwriter she’s paid every time her song is played on the radio or streamed online,” says Clyde Rolston, a music-business professor at Nashville’s Belmont University. “That makes a huge difference in long-term financial success.” With Nineties nostalgia kicking in, Carey’s music is streamed on Spotify twice as often as Madonna’s.
Negotiating writing credits is now de rigueur for Katy Perry, Rihanna, and other young pop stars—even if they haven’t actually penned the tunes. But Carey has always been shrewd with her contracts: In 2001, when she tried acting, in the movie Glitter, she bombed. The soundtrack album that followed sold only 500,000 copies. EMI, her label at the time, decided it would pay to never work with her again. So she brokered $28 million out of the deal. The New York Times did the math: Carey made about $25 per copy of Glitter sold at retail.
So how does Carey remain a star without big concerts or breakout songs? By saying yes, basically. A few months on American Idol netted her $18 million. Her Elizabeth Arden fragrances have made more than $150 million in revenue since 2007. She’s still hawking her HSN line, and she’s also got a new soft drink. Carey’s most profitable partnership remains the one she has with Santa Claus—she gets a windfall of royalties every Christmas when All I Want for Christmas Is You is played ad nauseam.
Now she’s turning to Vegas, the only channel she’s yet to milk of its money. Starting in May, she’ll play 18 shows at Caesars Palace while its matron, Celine Dion, rests. If the shows sell, Carey would be wise to make the gig permanent: Dion makes about $2 million in ticket sales a night. If it doesn’t work out for Carey, that will probably be fine, too. Even her failures end up making her a lot of money.
Wait so she made like $16 million from the Glitter OST?
Mariah made $51.5M from the Glitter era
Quote:
Virgin released a statement that they had "terminated" the contract with Carey, and paid her $28 million to do so. Carey's lawyers threatened to sue, with her attorney Marshall Grossman calling their behaviour in the matter "deplorable". Virgin replied that in terms of Carey's payout, they only listed the money they gave her for departing, not including the $23.5 million they already had paid while under contract for the first and only album they released by her.
Mariah making over $50M with the most iconic flop of all time
They based the $25 that Mariah gets for each copy of Glitter on the millions EMI/Virgin had to spend on buying Mariah out of her contract. She doesn't literally gets $25 every time someone buys a copy of Glitter.
They based the $25 that Mariah gets for each copy of Glitter on the millions EMI/Virgin had to spend on buying Mariah out of her contract. She doesn't literally gets $25 every time someone buys a copy of Glitter.
This is what some other fanbases who brag about concerts sales don't understand about Mariah. Mariah doesn't need all that effort of touring every night, because she's already making so much money off her royalties alone. At the end of the day, her music will outlast every single one of her contemporaries' musics.
Wow, I didn't know she made so much bank from Glitter. How did that happen.
Mess at her making $13+ million off of Glitter soundtrack sales
I wonder how much she made off of Daydream, Music Box, Emancipation, #1s, Merry Christmas, etc.
Rainbow - I read an article during the TEOM days that she earned $19M off Rainbow's sales, because she bought all the rights to the album itself. At the time, Mariah said Rainbow made her the most money out of her all albums. But this is just money off her music alone.
This video estimated up her royalties up quite accurately.
They say that Mariah earns $2.00 of a CD sold under Columbia, with an extra $0.50 for her songwriting.
So if we take a look at her album sales under Tommy's reign:
'Mariah Carey' (1990) 14 million x 2.50 = $35,000,000
'Emotions' (1991) 8 million x 2.50 = $20,000,000
'MTV Unplugged' (1992) 5,5 million x 2.5 = $13,750,000
'Music Box' (1993) 27 million x 2.5 = $67,000,000
'Merry Christmas' (1994) 13 million x 2.5 = $32,500,000 Disclaimer: AIWFCIY airplay, streams, single sales, royalties not included.
'Daydream' (1995) 21 million x 2.5 = $52,500,000
'Butterfly' (1997) 11 million x 2.5 = $27,500,000
'Number Ones' (1998) 14 million x 2.5 = $35,700,000
'Rainbow' (1999) 8 million x 2.5 = $20,000,000 So I was right about the $19-20M range.
So from the whole Tommy era, she earned... $303 Million dollars before taxes.
If anyone can find her album royalties for post Tommy, it'll be appreciated.
'Glitter' (2001) 2,5 million = $50M
'Greatest Hits' (2001) 3,5 million
'Charmbracelet' (2002) 2,5 million
'The Remixes' (2003) 0,7 million
'The Emancipation Of Mimi' (2005) 10 million
'E=MC˛' (2008) 2,5 million
'The Ballads' (2008) 0,8 million
'Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel' (2009) 1,5 million
'Merry Christmas II' (2010) 1,0 million
'Me, I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse' (2014) 0,3 million
Not to mention the fact that this was considered a bomb and yet she made tons of money with it.
