If it started to sound so much like Christmas sooner than normal this yr, it wasn’t your creativeness.
Halloween wasn’t even over earlier than Spotify customers started curating songs about mistletoe, snow and presents below the tree.
Vacation playlists created on Spotify within the U.S. jumped 60% in October over final yr, the Swedish audio firm mentioned. Some Spotify customers began crafting vacation playlists as early as summer time.
“It’s a mixture of desirous to really feel good and nostalgia, and these are testing occasions,” mentioned Talia Kraines, editorial lead for pop at Spotify. “Someway Christmas music brings consolation and I believe that’s an actual a part of it.”
Certainly, eight of the highest 10 songs on Billboard’s Scorching 100 chart for the week that ended Saturday had been Christmas songs, with the highest 5 being acquainted vacation classics, together with Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Need for Christmas Is You,” Brenda Lee’s 1958 recording of “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” and Wham!’s “Final Christmas,” launched in 1984.
On-demand streams for vacation music within the U.S. elevated 27% to eight.3 billion this yr, in comparison with a yr in the past, in line with L.A.-based knowledge agency Luminate.
The recognition of music streaming has helped to gasoline a surge in customers in search of out extra vacation music, and earlier within the yr.
The change has been pushed by expertise. Within the pre-streaming period, customers would play Christmas music by means of CDs and, data or catch tunes on the radio throughout the winter months.
However the rise of Spotify, Apple Music and different streaming companies opened the floodgates by providing massive libraries of songs on demand.
The brand new platforms created and marketed vacation playlists, making it simpler for customers to find seasonal songs and add new ones to their very own track collections.
“You used to have a bunch of Christmas albums round and rotate them by means of as you’re adorning the home or wrapping the presents,” mentioned Dave Bakula, vp of analytics and knowledge insights at Iconic Artists Group. “The provision of all of the music, on a regular basis is such an unbelievable present that streaming companies have given us.”
For musicians and file labels, vacation music additionally has taken on rising significance.
Vince Szydlowski, government vp of commerce at Common Music Enterprises, the centralized international catalog division of Common Music Group, mentioned he begins planning the yr’s marketing campaign for vacation music in January.
“For UMG and most of the artists that you simply affiliate with vacation music, it is going to be crucial time of the yr, no doubt,” Szydlowski mentioned. “In some circumstances, particularly with sure legendary artists, it may make or break their yr.”
Artist Brenda Lee performs on the “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” live performance on the Nation Music Corridor of Fame and Museum in Nashville in 2015.
(Laura Roberts / Invision / AP)
One marketing campaign Common Music Enterprises labored on was selling Elton John’s 1973 vacation track “Step into Christmas.” The track was featured in Amazon Prime Video’s vacation film “Oh. What. Enjoyable,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
John posted viral social media movies with the track enjoying within the background that drew greater than 100 million views.
These efforts helped enhance the monitor’s consumption by 44% this yr in comparison with final yr, in line with Common Music Group, citing knowledge from Luminate.
“It’s a really complete marketing campaign by which to proceed to spice up that monitor visibility among the many vacation perennials,” Szydlowski mentioned.
Lots of the standard Christmas songs within the U.S. date again many years, making it difficult for brand spanking new, unique vacation songs to interrupt by means of.
Mariah Carey’s “All I Need For Christmas Is You” has been the longest-running primary track in Billboard Scorching 100 historical past at 21 weeks, in line with Billboard.
The vacations are an necessary time for older artists like Brenda Lee, whose rendition of “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” stays a winter hit.
In November 2023, Lee’s model of the track topped Billboard’s Scorching 100 chart for the primary time, 65 years after the track’s debut, making Lee, then 79, the oldest girl to high the Scorching 100, in line with UMG.
Then there are artists just like the late Nat King Cole, recognized for hits like the vacation basic “The Christmas Track,” and Dean Martin, who died in 1995 and whose rendition of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” is very standard throughout winter months.
Nat King Cole in 1963. “The Christmas Track” turned considered one of his enduring hits.
(Capitol Information Archives)
One other supply of attraction for Christmas music is that it‘s timeless.
It isn’t actually affected by developments and the songs spotlight themes like love, hope, pleasure and household that remind us of our mates, household and previous Christmases, mentioned Jimmy Edwards, president of Iconic Artists Group.
“It’s the one music you could share it collectively from any age. As Nat would say, from one to 92, proper?” Edwards mentioned, referencing a lyric from Cole’s “The Christmas Track.” “These emotional bonds you could have with that music stick with you perpetually … It promotes the very best of us and all the great issues. That’s why folks adore it a lot.”
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