FTM

Top 10 albums of 2017

I got to get this posted while its still 2018, so here we go with no explanation other than I’m always behind on top 10 lists: (no particular order)

’68 - Two Parts Viper

Foster The People - Sacred Hearts Club

Paramore - After Laughter

Bjéar - Self-titled

Switchfoot - Where The Light Shines Through

Among Savages - Accounts of Friend and Foe

Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile To The Surface

Kings Kaleidoscope - The Beauty Between

Lecrae - All Things Work Together

I personally think Christmas is the best time of year and the fact that is has its own music is testament to that fact.  Christmas has a soundtrack.  Apparently its only acceptable to listen to Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving till the day after Christmas (or maybe New Year’s Eve - the verdict is still out).  That is a very limited offering, a minimum of only 33 days of listening to Christmas music, to be exact.

 So that got me thinking about the future of new Christmas music in the age of streaming.  Christmas music has basically only 1/12th  the staying power of a normal song: I can listen to any song all year round, but only a Christmas song one month out of the year.  Will bands get wise and not make as much Christmas music anymore?

 In the age of streaming an indie artist on Spotify is making .007 a stream and a signed artist is making .0011 a stream (source: informationisbeautiful.net).  The cost of the song to make is staying the same, but will bands decide to go ahead and make a Christmas album as purely a novelty and a catalogue filler, even if they will have a 91.667% better chance of making more money by making a non-Christmas, play it loud all year long song. I mean bands at the end of the day still need to put food on their table.  They need to get paid for their craft, but they may not have much of a chance of even recouping their costs on a Christmas album.  For easy math’s sake, if a song cost’s $1,000 then it will take 142,858  streams for an indie artist to recoup the cost.  For a non-Christmas song you have 12 months to get those streams.  For a Christmas song, it costs the same, but twelve months is really 12 months spread over 12 years (one playable month a year). Unless you are like me and occasionally like Go tell it on the Mountain in September, the math isn't promising.  So is this the beginning of the end of Christmas music?

 One thing I stand behind at FEEDtheMUSIC is that music is relationonal, not transactional. Music is art.   Its not just about the money and music means more to some people.  In that case I think Christmas music will continue to be made by many artists. I think Christmas music will still be a hallmark to most musicians catalogues, but this is the era of streaming and so we have seen a shift in how they are being released.  For many, LPs are turning into Eps and Christmas compilations are becoming more of THE thing.  In this day and age, if you can get on a Christmas playlist, that is the same as landing a compilation cd that was handed out for free at festivals back in the 90s.  You may not make money on it, but it can lead people to your year round catalogue. Relevant Magazine has done a good job the last couple of years of highlighting artists and giving their Christmas compilation away to all of its magazine subscribers.  Noisetrade has taken note of the Christmas frenzy and is currently highlighting its best Christmas albums, most of which are compilations for free on their front page.

 The strongest form of moving forward is the way that Sleeping At Last and MXPX has chosen to create their full lengths Christmas albums- one song at a time, year after year for many years.  Sleeping At Last records one song a year and then adds it to his digital album where he gives it away for free.  Year after year I have re-downloaded the whole album via Noisetrade to get the new song.  Every time I enter in my email address, I affirm my new time honored tradition of christening the Christmas season.  For the first time, Sleeping At Last has announced that 2017 has capped off his first album - and so physical copies were announced both in CD and vinyl. People will buy it, because they hunger for a physical connection to the sounds they know and love.  People will buy it because they want to support good music and the people that create it.  People will buy it because they have bought into what Sleeping at Last is about.

 Christmas music will change, maybe not the content of the songs, but the way the songs are released.  To what end, we shall watch and see.  Let’s make sure that the listener knows that these are artists working all year long often working in September to record a song that makes our December that much better.  

 Remember to FEEDtheMUSIC.

PS - Here is a link to a Christmas playlist I made.  Enjoy and hopefully we can all put a few dollars in their stockings.

When I won $500 from emusic I narrowed my picks down to 1 album - and that was Andrew Belle’s Black Bear.  Right now he is offering it free along with his new single, Dive Deep on Noisetrade.  Enjoy.