THE COVID-19 CRISIS is set to slash the festive royalty earnings of a number of major music stars this year.
Every Christmas, the likes of Shane MacGowan, Mariah Carey and co earn a truck-load from royalties with their festive hits being played around the clock.
But due to the pandemic, shops, pubs and other venues that would usually be blaring the likes of Fairytale of New York non-stop have shut, and as such aren't paying any copyright payments to do so.
Other outlets like McDonalds and Starbucks have been largely forced into takeaway services only, meaning there's no need to pay for atmospheric music for their customers.
While radio is still a big source of income, stars with famous Christmas songs are set to take a notable financial hit, according to the Irish Times.
It's understood that The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's Fairytale of New York rakes in around €430,000 every festive season.
Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas pulls in around the same, Last Christmas by Wham! makes around €350,000, while Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody earns a whopping €1 million.
Tony Barton, head of writer support and relationships for the Performing Rights Society (PRS), which collects royalties for over 150,000 songwriters and publishers, said that celebs with Christmas smash hits will see their festive payments cut by up to a quarter this year.
"[Losses] could be much more than 10%," he said.
"It could be up to 25%. We've been trying to be very honest with out members, we've been practical and realistic about this."
It suggests that some artists could be losing hundreds of thousands of Euro this year due to Covid-19.
