Radio’s Christmas Music Dilemma

December 2023

Our music streaming research service, STREAMSTATS, has uncovered an interesting dilemma facing the commercial radio industry.

For decades, the radio industry has determined that being the in-market station playing all Christmas music starting in November is a smart strategic move, blocking competitors for the All Christmas music image for listeners seeking wall to wall music of the season.

And generally, also some time in November, other stations in a market begin adding Christmas music to their playlists for occasional holiday tunes. These stations usually start with a couple of Christmas songs an hour increasing the hourly number as December rolls on.

It’s these stations that face a dilemma. As streaming music consumption has exploded in recent years with Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube leading the way, we are becoming much more educated about how people listen to music.

In the case of Christmas music, Bridge Ratings’ research fielded National generation-focused studies in November/December of 2020, 2021 and 2022 to determine when consumers actively seek out Christmas music on the radio. The results may suprise you.

With the bulk of Christmas music seeking occuring mid to late December, radio stations that sprinkle holiday music into their regular playlists as early as late November, may be sacrificing important listening.

Of the top 200 songs in most radio formats, less than fifteen percent are “consumption’heavy” titles that receive continued interest from listeners. The rest of the most-consumed songs are the regular hits that fans listen to weekly; they don’t suddenly stop seeking out their favorite non-holiday songs.

In fact, our studies show that the more Christmas music available in the market by music format, the more listeners are also seeking out their favorites. As stations abandon their usual hit-based playlists for holiday music, the audience desire for their favorites increases.

Yes, as Christmas approaches on the calendar, more consumers seek out holiday music on the radio, but it is only the four days prior to Christmas when listener interest in the usual hits begins to wane and a “jones'“ for holiday music can be satisfied as more stations increase Christmas music content to take advantage of this phenomenon.