How to Release Your Christmas Song & Music Video for Viral Success This Holiday Season Part 1
As the holiday season rolls around, it’s not just twinkling lights and festive cheer that take center stage—it’s also the soundtracks that bring the season to life.
From timeless classics like Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You to emerging new anthems, holiday music is a powerful way for artists to connect with audiences and create long-lasting cultural footprints. But breaking a Christmas song into the mainstream, whether new or previously released, requires a carefully crafted music promotion strategy.
This MPT Agency guide provides actionable insights into promoting, marketing, and building momentum for your holiday music, with proven techniques and growth hacks that can help artists stand out in the crowded Christmas & Holiday playlists.
Why Christmas Music Matters
The business of holiday music is booming. According to Spotify Wrapped data, Christmas songs dominate the global charts every December, with streaming spikes increasing by as much as 350% compared to other times of the year. Holiday playlists on platforms like Spotify and YouTube pull in millions of listeners, giving artists a unique opportunity to secure streams, build engagement, and even generate passive income through royalties.
More importantly, Christmas music holds immense emotional appeal. A study published in Psychology of Music found that festive tunes evoke strong nostalgia, happiness, and a sense of belonging, making them a powerful tool for audience connection.
Here's The MPT Agency Step-by-Step Guide to Promoting Your Christmas Song
A. Understand Your Music Promo Audience
Successful marketing starts with knowing who your song is for. Holiday music tends to resonate most with families, nostalgic listeners, and festive enthusiasts. Platforms like Spotify for Artists and YouTube Studio provide in-depth analytics to help pinpoint your target demographic.
Pro Tip: Target streaming platforms popular in countries where Christmas is widely celebrated, such as the U.S., Canada, and European countries.
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B. Leverage YouTube to Maximize Visibility
YouTube remains a top platform for music promotion, especially for holiday songs. Here’s how to maximize and optimize your reach:
- Create Deep Links: Ensure that links to your videos open directly in the YouTube app (not a browser), improving engagement since users are more likely to comment, like, and subscribe when logged into their accounts. Create your deep links and insert them in your bios, these are not regular links.
- Use ?sub_confirmation=1: Add this tag to your YouTube channel URL to prompt new visitors to subscribe. When running ads or sharing links on social media, this simple tweak can increase your subscriber count significantly.
- Run Smart Ads: Avoid low-converting channels (e.g., kids’ content) by targeting lookalike artists, relevant keywords, and specific geographic locations. Optimize for mobile, tablet and desktop views since users rarely comment from TVs.
- Capitalize on Shorts: YouTube Shorts has become a growth engine for new artists. Create engaging, holiday-themed short videos and run ads on them. YouTube’s algorithm often pushes Shorts even when ads are paused.
- Use the Google Ads Transparency Center: Check what big videos are being advertised. Look at their key terms and thumbnails to get ideas and benchmark your ads. Improve yours by comparing them to top-performing videos.
- Monitor Key Ad Metrics: Keep an eye on your CPV (cost per view), CPM (cost per thousand impressions), and the ratio of skippable to non-skippable ads. Adjust and optimize based on the best-performing keywords, hits, and costs. Need help? Reach out to us!
- Leverage YouTube Shorts Ads: YouTube continues to push your Shorts, even when you pause the ads. Many people don’t know this! Create lots of short-form content that engages fans and run ads to grow your reach.
- Take Advantage of YouTube’s New Algorithm: YouTube’s recommendations are now promoting new and undiscovered artists. Even if users haven’t engaged with your music before, your videos can appear on their homepage. This gives upcoming artists a real chance to shine.
- Find Inspiration for Shorts in YouTube Studio: Use the “Inspiration” section in the “Analytics” tab of YouTube Studio. Type in a category or theme, and it will show the most searched-for videos and tags related to that content. Use these tags in your uploads to boost your reach.
See more: 5 Ways Musicians Can Prepare For The New Year – our blog from 2022
C. Optimize Spotify Strategy
Spotify is the go-to platform for music discovery. To break your Christmas song here, use these tactics:
- Pitch to Editorial Playlists: Use Spotify for Artists to pitch your song to curated playlists. Tracks included in holiday playlists often see a 200-300% increase in streams during December.
- Collaborate with Creators: Reach out to Spotify creators (podcast or video) who need background or intro music for their videos or podcasts. If your song gets tagged within their content, viewers can play and save your song directly from their content, boosting streams of your song every time their video or podcast is played.
- Create Playlists for Better Engagement: Build a playlist with your song as the first track. Share this playlist with fans and direct them to listen. This can get you 2x, 3x, or even 10x more streams since users often play through the entire playlist. The same strategy works on YouTube—if they like the first video, they’re more likely to watch the rest. Use your playlists smartly to multiply views instead of grabbing a single stream per click.
- Run Ads on Meta Platforms for Playlists: Promote your song by running ads on Facebook and Instagram for a playlist. Include your song in positions #1, #2, and #4, alongside popular tracks that match your genre. This reduces ad costs by up to 80% and boosts streams over time much more than ads going straight to a fan url direct to a single track.
- Use EveryNoise to Find Your Audience: Not sure who to target with your ads? Visit EveryNoise.com, type in the name of an artist you sound like, and it will show their genre and similar artists with big followings. Build 7-15 target audiences from this tool and A/B test them to see which resonates best with your music. This is a great way to find the right fans.
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