AMERICA’S TOP TESTING CHRISTMAS SONGS OF 2023

 

Are America’s all-Christmas radio stations playing the right songs? P1 Media Group’s annual Christmas Music Research is here.  P1 Media Group, a global leader in media research and strategy, surveyed radio listeners nationwide likely to listen to an all-Christmas music radio station during the holiday season. We tested the appeal of the 40 most-played and 40 most-streamed Christmas songs from the 2022 Holiday Season, a total of 60 unique songs, thanks to Luminate’s holiday charts.

 

Key findings:

 

“Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms is America’s #1 research Christmas song, reclaiming the #1 position it has held for six of the last seven years. “Christmas music’s appeal remains as strong as ever amongst American radio listeners who listen to All Christmas stations ‘frequently’ or ‘sometimes’ and personally enjoy Christmas music on a local radio station during the holiday season,” says Ken Benson, Partner, and co-founder, of P1 Media Group. “As we often see, there is much to learn when we compare radio airplay to on-demand streaming data, even with holiday music.  Understanding streaming data can help broaden the appeal of your station.”

 

      • The Holiday Classics rule the Top 20, including two versions of “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
      • 2022’s #1 Stream and Airplay song ”Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” ranked #26 in total appeal this holiday season, albeit it trails this year’s #1 song by less than three percentage points. Mariah’s classic ranks #1 with 18-24s.
      • This list includes the 16 Christmas songs from the Top 40 most-streamed that didn’t make the Top 40 most-played airplay chart. The research suggests that these 16 songs test well enough to be considered for airplay.

 

Streaming Rank 2022 Airplay Rank 2022 Title Artist 18-54 Appeal Score
6 72 Santa Tell Me Ariana Grande 79.33
8 41 Underneath the Tree Kelly Clarkson 81.47
12 45 It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas Perry Como 80.74
16 16 Deck the Halls Nat King Cole 79.78
21 57 Run Rudolph Run Chuck Berry 76.82
22 98 Santa Baby Eartha Kit 75.25
23 48 Little St. Nick Beach Boys 75.71
24 159 Hallelujah Pentatonix 75.77
27 216 Snowman Sia 74.99
30 85 Christmas Time is Here Vince Guaraldi Trio 73.51
32 120 Mistletoe Justin Bieber 72.67
34 179 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Michael Buble 81.40
35 184 Winter Wonderland Darlene Love 78.55
37 259 Baby, It’s Cold Outside Dean Martin 79.10
38 52 Holly Jolly Christmas Michael Buble 81.89
40 206 You Make it Feel Like Christmas Gwen Stefani 70.48

 

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Download the Top 63 Christmas Songs HERE!

 

Download the full press release HERE!

 

 

ABOUT THE SURVEY

P1 Media Group conducted the online survey the weekend of October 28-30, 2022. We sampled 400 18-54-year-old radio listeners from the Top 50 American Radio Markets. Participants were required to listen either “Frequently” or “Sometimes” to an all-Christmas Music local radio station during the holiday season and rate their personal enjoyment of Christmas music on a local radio station during the holiday season a ‘7’ or higher on a 1 to 10 scale. We identified “Heavy Streamers” by asking each respondent “How frequently you listen to music on your smartphone, computer or other listening device from a streaming service such as Pandora, Spotify or Apple Music.” 50% of the sample responded they stream “everyday” and 25% answered a “few days” a week.  75% of the total sample were designated as “Heavy Streamers.”

The test list was compiled from the most-played Christmas Songs on American radio in 2021 and the most-streamed Christmas songs in America in 2021, according to Luminate. The full results are available https://p1mediagroup.com  For more info, email Ken Benson ken@p1mediagroup.com

About P1 Media Group

With experience and passion, we’re shaping the future of radio. We offer the power of a large consultancy, and the understanding, empathy, and honesty of a small one, with a customized approach to help stations grow and engage with their fans.

 

Contact: Ken Benson

Phone: +1.360.910.4119

Email: ken@p1mediagroup.com