Making Airwaves & (Virtual) Party Playlists This Holiday Season

You can count on it like you can count the keys on a piano – as soon as Thanksgiving drops, radio stations start playing Holiday music. Usually, one station in your area goes full blast while other stations pepper their playlist with “joy” and “cheer.” As it gets closer to the holidays, you’ll hear more and more staples: “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “O Holy Night,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “Christmas, Baby Please Come Home” and of course, Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” With the addition of satellite radio, you now get complete holiday stations – modern holiday songs, classic holiday songs, religious holiday songs and even a Chanukah channel! Throw in streaming and BOOM! you can create your own playlist, choosing standards like Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song,” Frank Sinatra’s “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow” and Elvis’ rendition of “Blue Christmas.”

 

 

There are also more modern renditions of holiday tracks such as Taylor Swift’s cover of WHAM’s “Last Christmas,” Madonna’s version of “Santa Baby,” and The Jackson’s singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” Not to be forgotten are original holiday songs – Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” “Underneath the Tree” from Kelly Clarkson, Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis,” Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me,” and probably the only Chanukah song to ever receive radio airplay, Adam Sandler’s “Eight Crazy Nights.”

 

So, what does that tell you, the artist? That there’s a lot of room out there to take a run at either a cover of a holiday classic or – why not? – writing your own holiday flavored song. It doesn’t have to be just about Christmas either, it could cover New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day (Hey U2!) or just the season itself… but there’s definitely an opportunity for your music to be heard and discovered in a way you may not have thought of before. 

 

DJs are still looking to put together their holiday playlists and will be doing a lot of virtual gigs – why not get your track in front of them? Stores are looking to put together fun music playlists for both in store and on hold, and tastemakers are always looking to PlayMPE for the latest releases and catalog classics. Television shows and movies shoot very far in advance of release dates and during post production producers love to hear new takes on holiday music. Music Supervisors can’t re-use the same old songs all the time, so they really jive on fresh music to ring in the New Year or highlight a holiday gathering.

 

Play MPE client Elizabeth Chan, has been having success with her rendition of  *“Celebrate Me Home.” The proclaimed “Queen of Christmas” has devoted her whole career to writing Christmas music, and her latest is a re-interpretation of a Kenny Loggins song of the same name. The moving track is about the desire to be with friends and family again for the holidays after so much social distancing. The song had already reached No. 5 on the holiday music charts, and Chan recently featured in People Magazine. Now that’s some holiday cheer indeed! 

 

With Play MPE, it’s easy for indie labels, artists and promoters to reach music influencers with global music promotion distribution toolCaster. Any songwriter/musician can create an account, upload content and generate an impactful promotional email to distribute music releases to Play MPE’s vetted distribution lists. Top tastemakers around the world access the latest releases – and yes, that includes holiday music –  in Play MPE’s secure Player (membership required). All of the major labels use Caster to promote their artists, and you should too! So put on a Santa hat or that ridiculous sweater that lights up (you know the one), channel your merriest musical muse and get your holiday music on. Just don’t forget to add – more sleigh bell! 

 

*Note: if you don’t have this release in your Player account already, feel free to contact us to request it.

 

By contributing writer Katy Krassner

Photo by Brigitte Tohm from Pexels