The holiday season is a great time to engage consumers. Holiday-themed specials, sales, deals, and events are all great ways to boost your business around Christmastime—but what about the music? In recent years, businesses have been one of the few places that consumers will still consistently hear Christmas music during the holiday season. While there have always been those who don’t love hearing White Christmas in November, Christmas music is an inevitable—and indispensable—part of the consumer shopping experience.

At Custom Channels, we understand that different businesses have different needs when it comes to bringing holiday cheer to your customers and staff. Christmas music, like many things, is all about balance. Some of our Ethos customers start blending in Christmas music—a few songs every hour—just before Thanksgiving. Some All Access customers tune into 100% Christmas songs for the whole month of December. And some ReMix customers schedule all of their Christmas music on Friday afternoons. With Custom Channels, you’re in control. Whether you want to play Christmas music in your business year-round or you never want to hear it at all, our platform makes it easy.

Don’t Fall Behind in Planning for Christmas Music

The best time to start thinking about and planning for Christmas music is at the beginning for fourth quarter. Fourth quarter is typically is best quarter for most businesses. It’s when they make the most money so core business planning for the Holidays has already begun in third quarter. Music can come together more quickly than ordering products or supplies.

By October, establishments should have an idea of when they want the Christmas music to start (before or after Thanksgiving? Early December?). And in November have an idea of how much Christmas will be playing (100%? 50/50 with the regular mix?). The final step is which styles and which songs to play. Work with a qualified music service provider to make this step much easier and more efficient.

Don’t forget, like music the rest of the year, all Christmsas songs playing in businesses and public spaces must be fully licensed with BMI, ASCAP and other agencies. Feel-good Christmas standards from the past don’t get a pass on paying the license fees. Again, your qualified music service provider should take care of all the reporting, regulations and royalties so you don’t have to. We do that as part of the full service at Custom Channels.

There’s Great Holiday Songs and There’s Not So Jolly Holiday Songs

In addition to the great amount of control over how much holiday cheer you hear, we also make sure that all of the holiday music we play is properly-suited for a business environment. Our Christmas music is curated with businesses in mind. No need to worry about the obscure cover of Frosty The Snowman or the 10-minute choir version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. You may like these songs, and that’s great! But we understand that, when curating Christmas music for music-conscious consumers, it’s best to leave these out by default and give you the option to add them in later if they really are your favorites.

However you and your customers want to enjoy the holidays, Custom Channels is here to help! This quote from the New York Times just about sums up our approach to providing Christmas music to those who love it: 

“Let us embrace our inner Mariah Carey in peace — all we want for Christmas is to enjoy the spirit how we want, for as long as we want.”