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Holiday music is coming! Here are all the Christmas classics you can cover for free

Rock Santa

If the calendar wasn’t enough a reminder then the falling temperatures have surely alerted you that the holiday season is officially upon us. Some of you have probably witnessed advertisements featuring Santa Claus already, and if you haven’t I can guarantee that you will soon enough.

Every year we see artists of all sizes from every genre imaginable try to leverage the love of the holidays with cover songs intended to boost interest in an otherwise slow time for the industry. Some of those efforts work better than others, but we encourage them all the same. Fans love having new material to enjoy, even if it’s a cover song of a holiday classic that has already been covered numerous time before. After all, no one has ever done it quite the way YOU would do something, so you should never let the fact others have attempted something similar stop you from showcasing what sets you apart.

There are two ways to approach cover songs: You can pay for the rights to use a song owned by someone else OR you can cover a song currently in the public domain without paying a dime. We suggest the latter, which is why we scoured the internet in search of holiday classics that you can cover for free. The results of that search can be found below…

Here is a list of holiday songs currently in the public domain:

  • “Angels We Have Heard On High”
  • “Auld Lang Syne”
  • “Away In The Manger”
  • “Deck The Halls”
  • “The First Noel”
  • “Go Tell It On The Mountain”
  • “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
  • “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing”
  • “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”
  • “I Saw Three Ships”
  • “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”
  • “Jingle Bells”
  • “Joy To The World”
  • “Come All Ye Faithful”
  • “O Holy Night”
  • “O Little Town Of Bethlehem”
  • “Silent Night”
  • “There’s a Song In The Air”
  • “Toyland”
  • “The Twelve Days of Christmas”
  • “Up On The Housetop”
  • “We Three Kings”
  • “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”
  • “What Child Is This?“

Many classic Christmas songs that are presumed to be in the public domain are in fact copyrighted, so make sure to double-check your sources before deciding a track is public domain.  PDInfo Online (www.pdinfo.com) is a good starting point if the liner notes and copyright information are unavailable. Here are just a few notable songs that would require a mechanical license:

Christmas Songs NOT in the public domain…

  • “Winter Wonderland” (Written by: Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith)
  • “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells)
  • “Sleigh Ride” (Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish)
  • “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin)
  • “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie)
  • “White Christmas” (Irving Berlin)
  • “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne)
  • “Jingle Bell Rock” (Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe)
  • “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” (Johnny Marks)
  • “Little Drummer Boy” (Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati, Harry Simeone)
  • “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” (Edward Pola, George Wyle)
  • “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” (Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram)
  • “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” (Johnny Marks)
  • “Silver Bells” (Jay Livingston, Ray Evans)
  • “Feliz Navidad” (Jose Feliciano)
  • “Frosty The Snowman” (Steve Nelson, Walter E. Rollins)
  • “A Holly Jolly Christmas” (Johnny Marks)
  • “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)” (Gene Autry, Oakley Haldeman)
  • “Carol Of The Bells” (Peter J. Wilhousky, Mykola Leontovich)

There is no question that some of the songs mentioned above have been reinterpreted by so many artists that putting an original spin on proceedings seems impossible, but it’s often the most challenging of endeavors that prove to be the most fruitful. By taking a holiday classic like the ones above and making it your own you’re further engaging already devoted followers while simultaneously creating an amazing opportunity to reach new fans. The holiday season generates a large number of sales and internet searches for seasonal music, and with proper tagging, your efforts will reach countless new listeners who could very quickly be converted into fans.

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Maintaining your sanity during the holiday break

If you are reading this post then there is a fairly good chance you are feeling more than a little bored. Maybe you’re a blogger with no new stories to publish, or perhaps you run an indie label where business has slowed in the days since Christmas. Whatever the case, you still have several days until the industry is back in full swing, if not longer. Some industry businesses do not return to a regular work schedule until the week after New Year’s Day, which for 2018 means January 8.

While we admire and applaud your dedication to the craft we also feel it is our duty to tell you that no one person has to be on top of everything all the time. In fact, sometimes it makes no sense to try and do so. The music business is a demanding place where most professionals, meaning those paid and those working for free alike, put in long hours to help those they believe in getting ahead. The daily grind can be killer on even the most dedicated souls, but for two to three weeks every year, there is a lull that almost everyone has agreed to maintain. It is a safe place where people can exhale and stretch and return calls to the family that they have been putting off since before the leaves began to change. That period is the one we are in right now, and it stretches from the days before Christmas until after the start of the new year.

You can work as much as you want during this time, but unless someone is telling you to complete a certain task (or tasks) we encourage you to disconnect. Yes, the company that exists entirely online and relies on clicks to keep the doors open is encouraging you to disconnect from the very thing that keeps its lights on. Some may say such comments are an exercise in self-destruction, but we tend to disagree. We see how much time people put into their work, both on the label side and on that odd the media, which means we also appreciate how much (most) people need a break. They deserve one, in fact.

Those who find the most success in life often cite their breaks or vacations as one of the reasons they perform so well. These people subscribe to the law of diminishing returns, which states that there is a point at which the level of profits or benefits gained is less than the amount of money or energy invested. In simpler terms, just because you work nonstop does not mean your success is also unending. You may succeed for a while, but at some point, you will no longer be able to do whatever it is you do as well as you did when you first started. The reason for this is fairly simple: You are a not a machine. You are not programmed to do one task over and over until you break down and/or are replaced by a superior machine. You are a human in need of food, exercise, and – above all else – rest.

So as you stare at this post and continue clicking over to the tabs containing your various social media feeds we encourage you to consider taking a step back, even if just for one day. Turn off your notifications, leave your inbox unread, and instead spend time doing something solely because it sounds good to you. It can be anything, from time with family and friends, to reading a book, binging a new series on Netflix, or finally learning how to make that pineapple upside down cake you’ve been talking about for months. Choose anything that interests you, just as long as you cannot turn it into work. You want to get music business as far from your mind as possible. Not music, mind you, but the music business. Don’t write content. Don’t draft content. Don’t even think of things as potentially becoming content. Just focus on being present in your individual life and reconnect with the person you are away from the internet. After all, that person – the one you are when existing outside the grind of the industry – is the one who started you on this journey in this business. If you lose that part of you there is no getting it back. As Against Me once sang, “Don’t lose touch.”

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Merry Christmas

Hello, everyone! We considered running a feature today, but instead thought it best to simply suggest everyone spend time with those they care about. Christmas comes only once a year and it’s meant to be celebrated with those who matter most.

All of us at Haulix wish you the absolute best Christmas imaginable. We’re thankful for your continued support and are very much looking forward to the year ahead. Happy holidays!

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