August 27, 2009

Get Your Music Ready for the Holidays! by Jake Smith

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Jake Smith is a TuneCore Customer Support representative and editor of the weekly newsletter


I'll
come right out and say it – I love Christmas music.  People like me are
the reason soft rock radio stations play "Santa Clause is Coming to
Town" October 31st through New Years Day.  Yet, in my adoration of
these songs there lies jealous anger.  All around the world, radio
stations have "All I Want For Christmas" and "Baby Please Come Home" on
rotation 10-20 times a day for 2 straight months, EVERY YEAR.  Add in
direct sales, TV and movie placements, features on compilations, and
royalties from cover versions and we're talking some serious cash. 
It's hard to imagine why the songwriters behind these classics would do
anything but swim in their coins like Scrooge McDuck.


What's to keep us from using our talents to cash in on the Holidays?

It may seem a bit strange to discuss Christmas songs in August, but I mention it for a few reasons.

  • I
    just read an article from Billboard News confirming that Bob Dylan will
    release his first ever Christmas album this October to raise money for
        Feeding America.  If Bob Dylan was able to get himself in a
    Christmas state of mind while recording in hot summer months, so can
    you!
  • Writing, producing, mixing, mastering, uploading and delivering a track can take time so you should always think ahead.
  • Holiday
    songs are not limited to Christmas – patriotic song sales spike around
    the Fourth of July, spooky songs get a big boost around     Halloween,
    and tunes about poultry and mashed potatoes go through the roof on
    Thanksgiving (that may not be true… but you never know).

I
am no expert on this issue (I did do an independent study on Christmas
music in college… just sayin'), but these are some things you may
want to think about if you plan to release holiday music into the world.


    1. Mix covers and originals.  You'll often see holiday records
where established artists will perform standards but also include one
or two songs they wrote themselves.  I'll listen to anybody's version
of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" at least once – This might
lead me the other songs on their album, which might lead me to other
non-holiday songs they've released.


    2. If you plan to write an original holiday song, spend some time
studying the ones that have stood the test of time.  You may notice
certain chord changes, riffs, or key phrases that pop up in a number of
holiday tunes.

   
3. Look for a fresh angle.  Understanding what makes other songs
popular does not mean you need to rip them off do what's been done
1,000 times before.  Maybe you should try the exact opposite.  Flip a
classic on its head with a unique instrumentation, write an album of
Hanukkah Hip-Hop songs, combine different holidays within a single EP
or a single track, whatever!  Hit people with something they've never
heard before and you could end up tapping a market no one has before.


Who of you out there already has holiday tunes online?  Do any of you
plan on writing or covering a holiday song this year?  Does anyone
think they have a unique approach to holiday music, the likes of which
the world has never seen?  Share your thoughts here on the TuneCore blog.

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August 27, 2009 · 24 comments in Artist Marketing

  • http://www.sonofabeachmusic.com Gary Snead

    I’ve already uploaded my original Christmas track, “Beneath The Mistletoe”, as a single to all the stores via my Tunecore account, and intend to release a Holiday Album including some new takes on standard public domain stuff… Hmmmm… I guess great minds must think alike, huh Jake?
    Great and timely Blog!!
    Gary Snead

  • http://www.seriousvanity.com/seriousvanityrecords/ Dana Detrick from Serious Vanity Music

    We do! Our “Too Cool for the Yule” (check it out at http://www.tunecore.com/music/seriousvanity) is a ‘wintery mix’ of original holiday music from all of the acts on our roster.
    We learned a lot during the creation of that CD last winter. What *not* to do? Cut it too close for a release during the prime shopping season. You don’t want to be so busy with the creation process that you don’t leave time to plan marketing, or to be prepared for the inevitable issues that pop up.
    But if you do plan ahead, it’s a great idea that can enhance what you offer your fans (and help find you new ones). Plus, it’s just a ton of fun creatively to do something outside of your normal ‘realm’.
    Now that we’ve already got all of the tunes in the digital stores for 2009, available on our site, and marketing plan in the works…we’re getting the companion coloring book (why should kids have all the fun?) and other goodies that can go along with it. Just have fun with it! That’s definitely our plan.

  • http://www.hiramring.com Hiram Ring

    The first 2 albums I released were Christmas collaborations with friends. I happened to write the title track of each – both of which got some good local radio airplay on WJTL/Lancaster and WXPN/Philadelphia.
    ‘O Little Child’ is the first track on the 2007 album ‘Word>>>Flesh’: http://www.itunes.com/hiramring/word>>>flesh
    ‘Just a Single Season’ is the first track on the 2008 album ‘Love>>>Begotten’: http://www.itunes.com/hiramring/love>>>begotten
    Holiday music is great for exposure, especially when people are tired of all the usual stuff. Having a cool new take on a classic can really be valuable, but writing a ‘classic’ might be even better in the long run…
    Hiram Ring

  • http://www.newchristmasclassics.com/ Daddywags

    Please take a listen to my new Christmas classics Waitin On Santa Claus and Holidays, It’s The Holidays
    Daddywags

  • http://radiusarts.com Michael Bishop

    I have a Christmas record on iTunes and most on line stores already,
    “Rockabilly Christmas” by Michael Bishop. Will Tunecore release it to
    other sites if I upload it or will it get in the way of where it already is? The track is a cult hit with some famous musicians playing, I
    want to get it more attention.
    Have a Rockabilly Christmas,
    Michael Bishop

  • http://www.messinaproductions.com Scott Messina

    Our Christmas Albums are doing ok, and so is our Halloween Album… (all found on iTunes)
    “A Christmas Celebration” by Krystof
    “Holiday Dreams” by Krystof
    “Halloween Horror Music” Vol. 1 by Krystof.
    “Same Old Lang Syne” – A tribute to Dan Fogelberg… by Tierney Allen
    Muzak (though currently Bankrupt) play our tunes Internationally. The royalties are not impressive, but the exposure is good.
    Jack, do you know anyone at XM/Sirius?
    If so, please advise… the world should continue to hear this great music.
    Scott Messina, President
    Messina Records

  • http://www.thosedreadedgnats.com Harry Kopy

    We’ve tried all the tricks. “A Dreaded Xmas” by Those Dreaded Gnats, contains original music, a reggae cover of Grandma Got Run Over…a couple of instrumentals of Public Domain songs i.e. Jingle Bells becomes Jungle Bells (all African percussion)…Most of the songs are a comedic look at the “down” side of Xmas. We never realized just how many other Xmas albums were out there… A TON!
    So we went a step further and made a video of Merry FXmas…here’s a link to the clean version:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3y8H6vry_Q
    And finally after 3 years of pushing it, and some Sirius Satellite airplay, Merry FXmas (the explicit version) will be on a compilation album, thanks to Red Peters (from the Howard Stern station) on Oglio Records…
    So, what I’m saying is you need to be as different as possible…way out in left field, if you want to get noticed…i.e.The Hebrew Four, doing a Christmas compilation…
    A Merry Christmas to All, and to All a good Fight!
    Harry

  • http://www.dolinins.ru Dolinin

    Good advise in good time. I got a song called “Carrying you” in my album, that is just a theme about Christmas. Perhaps, it I want in on a radio in December, I should start fussing about it right away ))))

  • http://www.erikkyleandthebeads.com Erik Kyle

    I wrote a Chritmas song last year; It’s called “CHRISTMAS IN DECEMBER” by Erik Kyle and the Beads and is available through TuneCore…Check it out!

  • http://www.humbugrecords.com Sam Mims, HumBug Records, www.humbugrecords.com

    An extra sales strategy: Go after companies who are sending out holiday “Thank You” gifts. This worked nicely with our compilation, “HumBug Christmas”. In fact, you can even get pre-orders before the CD is pressed – which sure helps to determine how many to press.

  • http://www.myspace.com/hollyandtheitalians elf on holiday

    “PuNk XmAs” by Holly Beth Vincent on iTunes and other stores.

  • http://www.myspace.com/hansiandthemarvellous Hansi & The Marvellous

    You are right. You have to start writing in summer to be ready for Christmas. So far I wrote 3 Christmas songs. One in English, one in Austrian Dialect and one I combined with Mozart tunes sung by guys from simbabwe – really strange, really strange,… I carry a heavy load because I come from Salzburg where Mozart wrote his marvellous tunes and where Mr. Gruber and Mr. Moor wrote Silent Night, Holy Night. Now I am writing my next Christmas song called “It Never Shines The Sun In Africa”. If you are interested just go to our myspace site.
    As you said, you can write a lot of songs for particular occasions or persons like Football, for all the poor fifty year old guys,… :-)

  • http://www.myspace.com/hansiandthemarvellous Hansi & The Marvellous

    You are right. You have to start writing in summer to be ready for Christmas. So far I wrote 3 Christmas songs. One in English, one in Austrian Dialect and one I combined with Mozart tunes sung by guys from simbabwe – really strange, really strange,… I carry a heavy load because I come from Salzburg where Mozart wrote his marvellous tunes and where Mr. Gruber and Mr. Moor wrote Silent Night, Holy Night. Now I am writing my next Christmas song called “It Never Shines The Sun In Africa”. If you are interested just go to our myspace site.
    As you said, you can write a lot of songs for particular occasions or persons like Football, for all the poor fifty year old guys,… :-)

  • http://profile.typepad.com/BKL BKL

    We also have our holiday single, “Ring the Bells” up and ready to go for the holiday season.
    Our tune can be found on iTunes (www.tunecore.com/music/hollowaykirbo) and other online stores.
    An early Happy Holidays to everyone,
    Betsy

  • http://rosaminstrels.com Amy Humphrey

    Although my main gig is half of two-piece rock band Clatter, I decided to record a Christmas CD with my mother and sister a couple years ago under the name Rosa Minstrels. We thought it would be neat to record the old carols from around the world that the three of us used to sing when my sister and I were girls. We interpreted them as lullabies — like a mom singing her new-born baby to sleep, which is basically what most of the lyrics were about!
    Titled “Célébrons la naissance,” the CD was well-received by music listeners and some women’s interest publications and was posted two years in a row on NPR’s online Christmas music feature, but since all my experience in the music industry is in the rock music realm, I have been floundering trying to find a way to market the CD. Many people tell us they listen to the CD year-round because they find it soothing.
    I know there are scads of folks out there who go ga-ga for Christmas music, I just don’t know how to connect with them!

  • http://radiusarts.com Michael Bishop

    I have a Christmas record that first came out on Rhino Records in
    1981 on vinyl. It now has been re-mastered and sounds great, It is popular all over the world and a favorite at Black Cat.com. Its the original and only “Rockabilly Christmas” by Michael Bishop with guest musicians Hunt Sales and Brian Ray, engineered by Geza X.
    It is here at my Tunecore account and will be available everywhere
    by November. This song gets the season rockin’ and is a great singalong.
    Have a Rockabilly Christmas,
    Michael bishop

  • http://www.amazon.com/Merry-Christmas/dp/B002R9AR6E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1255134860&sr=8-3 Gregory Madison Brettell

    New original christmas single just released:
    http://www.amazon.com/Merry-Christmas/dp/B002R9AR6E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1255134860&sr=8-3
    Please check it out … The girls: Lulu (7-yrs old) and Lina (5-yrs old).
    Thanks!
    Merry, Merry Christmas!
    Gregory M. Brettell

  • http://www.newyearsong.org/ Paul Oxley

    How many thousands of Christmas songs are there? and how many New Year Songs? Not many. Which is surprising cos New Years Eve is a big night out. Anyway I wrote one which is released on Sony/BMG and you can download all file formats here for free (don’t tell them :-) : http://www.newyearsong.org/

  • http://www.Malibooz.net John Zambetti

    The Malibooz have a CD full of mostly original Christmas tunes. We do them surf style with a lot of harmonies. The CD is called A MALIBU KIND OF CHRISTMAS and available on iTunes or through CDBaby.com, Amazon etc. There are also a couple of instrumentals I think you’ll like; LITTLE SURFIN DRUMMER BOY and CAROL OF THE SWELLS.
    We also have a single(not on the album) but available on iTunes called SANTA’S GONE SURFIN
    have a real cool Yule!
    The Malibooz

  • http://profile.typepad.com/6p012875634839970c www.myspace.com/jackieogrady

    Hi Jake & everybody. I wrote a christmas song called ‘Little Red Robin’. This bird has always been a symbol for christmas and no one has really put it in the spotlight. Its on christmas card alright… I put the song out there last year with tunecore on every site available but only sold it 2 times. One to me and one to my mum. Its just so much out there and gettin the attention, you really got to push it. I think even investing, like buying the online airplays… but how do you get it played on the radio?
    Anyway, the song has not been the greatist quality. So i took it to Mike Meyers (The Dooleys, The Nolans…). He now took it a step further and orchestrated it. Now it sounds like its going thro a journey of feelings. In the beginning just warm memories and then at the end it leads into the fun rocking party time of christmas. Funny enough, Mike is a friend with Sir Cliff Richard. I call him the King of Christmas Songs. Mike has never done a christmas song, but its such a fun project…. anyway the few people who have heard it so far say it sounds great. Im so curious what Cliff will say ;-)
    I don’t think it will be ready for this year to put it for sale but I’d like to promote it anyway cos its a really, really nice sing-along happy christmas song… and it rocks :-) Also, its commercial!
    The old version is on my myspace site and here for sale. The new version will hopefully be ready by the End of November!
    I would really appreciated some feedback then, please!!!
    And what actually is the best way to promote christmas hits???
    All the best,
    Jackie O’Grady

  • http://www.myspace.com/christmassteve Christmas Steve

    Hi Jake,
    I’ve written a few Christmas songs. Two have been recorded by other artists.
    “Every Time It’s Christmas” was recorded by John McDermott and Murray McLauchlan and is included on John’s CD “Images of Christmas” (EMI Music), and is also, as of this year, included on the new itunes essentials “Canadian Christmas 2″, along with songs by Michael Bulblé, Joni Mitchell and Diana Krall.
    “If I Don’t Make It Through This Christmas” was recorded by the group “Quartette” and is available on the CBC Records compilation “All For A Song.” It features a great band including guitarist Kevin Breit (Nora Jones, Cassandra Wilson).
    A third one–”The Christmas Eve Shoppers”–was a finalist in the UNISONG International Songwriting Competition. I decided to try an experiment and release the home-made recording as a digital single. After doing extensive research I decided to use the services of Tunecore. It’s been great! And so easy!! I’ll definitely be using Tuncore for my next digital release.
    Thank you.
    Merry Christmas,
    Christmas Steve

  • http://www.themidtownsound.com Deyland

    We released a Christmas song in 2007, Christmas In New York City, by A. Gregory Harris. It’s got a unique spin with a lounge/cabaret feel, and smooth Nat Cole sound for familiarity. Well, it seemed like we flung our ambitious rods into an endless ocean with no hooks or bait; like maybe we were fishing in the wrong waters. We just believed in the song and felt it was better to get it out in some way (amazon) rather than have it collect shelf dust. But after we did release it, we realized that that market is nearly inundated with the classics and every year, there’s no room at the fireplace for another, let alone a new stocking; the stations and the people want to play and hear the familiar songs that echo the holiday season and nothing else. I love a lot of those classics too, and look forward to them to spike my holiday step. So, we figure we just have to keep the hook out there in the water and someday the discerning public will bite. We hope so anyway. It’s like the Christmas song business is its own fraternity, and time in the water is its initiation process for a new candidate. We hope so anyway.

  • Ron Gaiser

    GEE JAKE!
    There are a lot more holidays out there besides Christmas. How about Fathers day? Which by the way is right around the corner. How many fathers day songs can you humm or remember? Well, Ive got one for you, it’s titled, MY DAD! Its a single by me: RON GAISER, and I wonder if anybody will go and listen to it on TuneCore. I was fortunate enough to have my dad listen to it before he passed away. That’s who I wrote it for but now it seems many people relate to it and appreciate it wherever its played.
    I hope I can get some help putting it on before June 20th. I just signed on to TuneCore as an artist and have an album to put up but, I want this single up first. I think it is universal and everyone who had a dad will relate. Hope you like it. Let me know!
    Happy Fathers Day
    Ron Gaiser

  • http://www.dialashop.com Dialashop

    I have been trying to write songs themed on various calendar events like Christmas, Easter, Valentines and even Halloween. I have even tried writing songs for Eurovision, World Cup Soccer, Natural Disasters. In some cases I have done it because I wrote a song naturally or I wrote a song for a specific event in order to promote it online. It is very hard to write the songs and mega hard to get people to hear about it. I think it is a good idea to write about these themes especially great songs. I have a super fantastic song called ‘In the Night Time’ and it is a super song for Halloween and its very catchy, but I have not added it online until I find a strategy in how people can find it. This blog is one great startig point because it allows you to discuss a subject and people can add their opinions. For musicians/promoters that are pursuing the avenue of writing themes songs for christmas, halloween etc I think its a good idea to set up your own pages on the topic so when you try to spread the word, you have your own info and pictures. I have music on multiple sites, but most of the info is on my personal site:
    http://www.dialashop.com/vic/
    Another ideas is if you are going a Halloween song try to find sponsors or retailers that may be interested in your song(s). Anyway these are some of my ideas. Good luck.

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