CAMDEN, NJ – DECEMBER 14: Singer Katy Perry performs live at the Q102 Jingle Ball December 14, 2008 … [+]
This time of year, Christmas songs are all but unavoidable. They dominate almost all forms of media, as well as the radio waves and the Billboard charts. Currently, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is steady at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for a tenth nonconsecutive week, and almost the entire top 10 is filled by seasonal smashes. The vast majority of holiday tracks that find their way back to the competitive rankings are classics, as newer releases don’t often shine quite as bright as the standards. While it may be difficult for modern covers and brand new Christmas tunes to break out, Amazon
This year alone, three different songs recorded specifically for Amazon Music’s Originals program have made it to the Hot 100, and they are simultaneously charting together. Tracks by Lizzo (“Someday at Christmas”), Kane Brown (“Blue Christmas”) and Lauren Spencer-Smith (“Last Christmas”) have all spent several weeks on the ranking, proving themselves to be among the most popular tunes in America during a particularly busy period for jolly cuts.
As if sending several songs to the Hot 100 isn’t enough to qualify the program as a success, a handful of Amazon Music Original tracks have also managed to place on several different Billboard radio charts. For King & Country’s “Do You Hear What I Hear?” is currently a top 10 while Lizzo’s “Someday at Christmas” is up to a new high of No. 23 on the Adult Contemporary list.
For those who don’t know, sending a song to a radio chart doesn’t happen easily. It’s possible to hit the Hot 100 due solely to strong sales and streams, but racking up enough spins at radio to appear on a Billboard ranking typically requires intense promotion. Resources are clearly being spent to promote some of these Amazon Music Original songs to programmers and DJs across the country, and their success places them not only on these radio charts, but helps them remain on the Hot 100, morphing them from potential one-moment-wonders to proper seasonal hits. Sometimes, artists will also go out of their way to continually promote their Amazon Music Original Christmas songs during concerts or perhaps even on TV appearances, building them up even further.
Everything mentioned above only highlights the company’s success with its Amazon Music Originals program this season, though it turns out that Christmas has been a big part of the series for a long time. According to Stephen Brower, Global Co-Lead, Artist Relations at Amazon Music, the Amazon Music Originals effort launched with Christmas music back in 2014, blending new and old into a singular playlist…but it wasn’t until 2018 that things really blew up.
That year, Katy Perry’s “Cozy Little Christmas” served as something of an inflection point for the Amazon Music Originals program. The track was comparatively huge at the time (it eventually peaked at No. 53 on the Hot 100 and was certified platinum in early 2022), and it has now become something of a very rare modern staple. “Katy really leaned in,” Brower commented about the success of the single, adding, “She was super excited about it… Since Katy, I would say the Christmas originals have really become something that not only do we look forward to working on, but I think our customers look forward to and expect.”
After Perry proved what could be done with an Amazon Music Original, many other superstars have signed on and lent their talents to the series, including names like John Legend, Carrie Underwood and even Taylor Swift, and each year brings a new swath of chart-toppers into the fray.
While Christmas comes but once a year, the team at Amazon Music is preparing for its annual roll out at all times in what Brower calls a “year-round conversation.” Sometimes artists want to create something brand new, such as in the case of Perry and “Cozy,” which Brower admits almost always “sonically have this thing that’s nostalgic but also contemporary.”
In other instances, a cover is decided upon–but always one that works with the artist who will be re-recording the tune. It could be as simple as one musician loving a certain cut and deciding to remake it, which happens often, such as with Lizzo’s “Someday at Christmas” (originally a Stevie Wonder recording) or Camila Cabello’s special 2021 release “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” According to Brower, “[Cabello] very much wanted to bring this mariachi production to it, and it was authentic to her. That’s something that there’s absolutely room for her fans to discover alongside an iconic, standard version of that song.”
On other occasions, there’s a timely hook that allows a star to reimagine a favorite. “‘Blue Christmas’ is another great example,” Brower inserted, bringing up country musician Kane Brown’s 2022 cover of the Elvis classic. “With everything that’s going on with Elvis this year–with the movie and Doja Cat’s ‘Vegas’–we felt there is absolutely a moment for a contemporary version.”
While the process of deciding who contributes what is probably more complicated than he makes it out to be, Brower says the whole thing is organic, describing it simply: “We want to make sure that we’re working with an artist that we know our customers love and that we know we’re going to be able to promote with a creative that everybody’s happy with.”
The Christmas tunes that are part of Amazon Music Originals have become something for the company’s millions of users to look forward to, but impressively, the program reaches beyond just those who already claim a subscription. By this point, many of the songs included in the annual series expand beyond just the one platform. They reach the masses at radio and rack up tens of millions of views on YouTube, and after an exclusivity period is over–Amazon wouldn’t comment on what that is specifically, though several cuts from last year are now available widely–they remain must-listens for fans everywhere.
This program can be thought of as something of a differentiator for Amazon Music in a crowded streaming space. Most of the top players in the industry have nearly identical libraries and offer their products for very similar prices, so anything that makes one stand out from another can and should be considered as valuable. While the company doesn’t like to tout the Amazon Music Originals specifically as a marketing differentiator–when asked about this possibility, Brower commented, “We’re very focused on our customers and not so much the marketplace in general,”–it’s clear that the conglomerate is making more of the holiday season than its competitors.
Now that the Amazon Music Originals program–both during the Christmas season and throughout the rest of the year–has helped up-and-coming acts score charting hits and given superstars another way to connect with their fans, many artists are interested in taking part. “Artists know that this is a big opportunity,” Brower says, and he’s right. He also admitted that following the incredible success the series has enjoyed this year, he’s predicting quite a few inbound calls from managers who want to get in on the fun next time around, and work on the 2023 tunes will surely begin shortly (if it hasn’t already).
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2022/12/23/the-inside-story-of-how-katy-perry-helped-make-amazon-a-christmas-music-power-player/