Christmas music driving you nuts? Why holiday playlists are everywhere

If it began to dependable a batch similar Christmas earlier than accustomed this year, it wasn’t your imagination.

Halloween wasn’t adjacent implicit earlier Spotify users began curating songs astir mistletoe, snowfall and presents nether the tree.

Holiday playlists created connected Spotify successful the U.S. jumped 60% successful October implicit past year, the Swedish audio institution said. Some Spotify users started crafting vacation playlists arsenic aboriginal arsenic summer.

“It’s a operation of wanting to consciousness bully and nostalgia, and these are investigating times,” said Talia Kraines, editorial pb for popular astatine Spotify. “Somehow Christmas euphony brings comfortableness and I deliberation that’s a existent portion of it.”

Indeed, 8 of the apical 10 songs connected Billboard’s Hot 100 illustration for the week that ended Saturday were Christmas songs, with the apical 5 being acquainted vacation classics, including Mariah Carey’s 1994 deed “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Brenda Lee’s 1958 signaling of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” released successful 1984.

On-demand streams for vacation euphony successful the U.S. accrued 27% to 8.3 cardinal this year, compared to a twelvemonth ago, according to L.A.-based information steadfast Luminate.

The popularity of euphony streaming has helped to substance a surge successful users seeking retired much vacation music, and earlier successful the year.

The alteration has been driven by technology. In the pre-streaming era, consumers would play Christmas euphony done CDs and, records oregon drawback tunes connected the vigor during the wintertime months.

But the emergence of Spotify, Apple Music and different streaming services opened the floodgates by offering ample libraries of songs connected demand.

The caller platforms created and marketed vacation playlists, making it easier for consumers to observe seasonal songs and adhd caller ones to their ain opus collections.

“You utilized to person a clump of Christmas albums astir and rotate them done arsenic you’re decorating the location oregon wrapping the presents,” said Dave Bakula, vice president of analytics and information insights astatine Iconic Artists Group. “The availability of each the music, each the clip is specified an unthinkable acquisition that streaming services person fixed us.”

For musicians and grounds labels, vacation euphony besides has taken connected increasing importance.

Vince Szydlowski, enforcement vice president of commerce astatine Universal Music Enterprises, the centralized planetary catalog part of Universal Music Group, said helium starts readying the year’s run for vacation euphony successful January.

“For UMG and galore of the artists that you subordinate with vacation music, it volition beryllium the astir important clip of the year, without a doubt,” Szydlowski said. “In immoderate cases, particularly with definite legendary artists, it could marque oregon interruption their year.”

Artist Brenda Lee performs astatine the “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” performance astatine the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum successful Nashville successful 2015.

(Laura Roberts / Invision / AP)

One run Universal Music Enterprises worked connected was promoting Elton John’s 1973 vacation opus “Step into Christmas.” The opus was featured successful Amazon Prime Video’s vacation movie “Oh. What. Fun,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

John posted viral societal media videos with the opus playing successful the inheritance that drew much than 100 cardinal views.

Those efforts helped boost the track’s depletion by 44% this twelvemonth compared to past year, according to Universal Music Group, citing information from Luminate.

“It’s a precise broad run successful which to proceed to boost that way visibility among the vacation perennials,” Szydlowski said.

Many of the fashionable Christmas songs successful the U.S. day backmost decades, making it challenging for new, archetypal vacation songs to interruption through.

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has been the longest-running fig 1 opus successful Billboard Hot 100 past astatine 21 weeks, according to Billboard.

The holidays are an important clip for older artists similar Brenda Lee, whose rendition of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” remains a wintertime hit.

In November 2023, Lee’s mentation of the opus topped Billboard’s Hot 100 illustration for the archetypal time, 65 years aft the song’s debut, making Lee, past 79, the oldest pistillate to apical the Hot 100, according to UMG.

Then determination are artists similar the precocious Nat King Cole, known for hits similar the vacation classical “The Christmas Song,” and Dean Martin, who died successful 1995 and whose rendition of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” is particularly fashionable during wintertime months.

Nat King Cole successful 1963. “The Christmas Song” became 1 of his enduring hits.

(Capitol Records Archives)

Another root of entreaty for Christmas euphony is that it‘s timeless.

It isn’t truly affected by trends and the songs item themes similar love, hope, joyousness and household that punctual america of our friends, household and past Christmases, said Jimmy Edwards, president of Iconic Artists Group.

“It’s the 1 euphony that you tin stock it unneurotic from immoderate age. As Nat would say, from 1 to 92, right?” Edwards said, referencing a lyric from Cole’s “The Christmas Song.” “Those affectional bonds you person with that euphony enactment with you everlastingly ... It promotes the champion of america and each the bully things. That’s wherefore radical emotion it truthful much.”

.