Step into Christmas
We have to inform you that there are not only people who will start listening to Christmas music today, but that there are many people who have been listening to Christmas music for weeks.
Yes, it’s beginning to look a little like Christmas: the season of cheer, retail (see above), understanding, chestnuts on open fires, and your favorite festive stars coming out of hibernation (e.g. Bublé). Few can resist getting into the holiday spirit in the lead-up to December 25th, and nothing captures the magic like a holly-jolly hit — in fact, 53% of Americans consider Xmas music to be “essential” in any celebrations.
Joy to the world
According to a 2017 Spotify study, November 12th marked the threshold when Xmas songs comprised over 2% of all streams. From then on, the festive listening ramps up each weekend, before peaking on the big day itself… and then sharply dropping when the holiday has wrapped up.
Predictably, the song climbing the Spotify charts the fastest is Christmas-constant All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, which was already the 11th most listened-to song on all of Spotify (globally) on Wednesday, racking up 3.3 million streams on that day alone — worth about $8-10k of royalties to the rights holders, per estimates.
Related data: Cool visual from Eva Murray exploring when Christmas music takes over in different countries.
