In the Mood for Christmas; in the Market for Christmas Music

‘Tis the season for Christmas songs everywhere — on the radio, in department stores, on television and in movie theaters. It may seem as if you’re hearing an unfiltered stream of the same songs, played over and over, but in fact someone put a lot of time and care into selecting and obtaining the rights to use the version of “White Christmas” you heard in the background of that TV special.

Some Christmas songs are public domain, while most others are controlled by major music publishing companies. Some Christmas songs are sung by famed crooners of standards, while others merely sound as if they are sung by famed crooners of standards.

In preparation for the heady holiday month of December, many music supervisors spend time clearing the publishing on the same old holiday songs and seeking out both fresh and familiar takes on familiar public domain tunes. At least once a year, there is a serious need for holiday music, and a minor cottage industry has boomed as a result of that need.

Here are some instances in which I have been compelled to license Christmas music over the past few years: for a drug store campaign, for a company that manufactures synchronized light displays, for a network television show, for a branded webisode, for an independent film. The list goes on, and the action usually goes down a few months before the actual month of December.

Artists often ask me how they can write better songs so that people who do what I do will be more inclined to license them. My answer usually relates to the same principle of supply and demand that is pertinent to most industries: make the kind of music that music supervisors need to license and that is generally not available or less available.

Indie rock bands and hip-hop artists are a dime a dozen, but really amazing indie-rock and rap covers of “Frosty The Snowman” (not public domain) and “Jingle Bells” are not. Eveyr holiday, music supervisors scramble to nab the usage rights for interesting versions of the songs we know by heart. If the production budget is limited, they’ll scramble to get versions of those songs which also happen to be public domain. But they still have to license a recording, and if an artist happens to have a version, perhaps available on iTunes for easy searchability, that artist may have just added a few thousand dollars to his holiday coffers.

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For the record, I am not looking for Christmas music this week. I am however looking for songs to replace Green Day’s “East Jesus Nowhere” for a car spot. Ideas welcome.