Calling for freshly baked tunes in time to deck the malls

With hot cross buns already saturating supermarkets in the long lead-up to Good Friday, Christmas feels like a distant memory. Seeing the next wave of seasonal retail fare hitting the shelves reminded us of the story we posted in December - about festive music and the retail psychology that's at play, where timing, earworms and jingle fatigue are concerned.

Upon return from the summer break, what struck a chord with us was that only one local Christmas song featured in the list of top local tracks that were played in businesses* across the country throughout December. That being: "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by The Beths). 

Before we turned on our out-of-office replies, Audioculture shared a couple of classic Kiwi Christmas compilations that featured a great selection of music from years gone by including "Pohutukawas & Pavlovas - 60 years of Christmas Songs", and "Merry Christmas New Zealand". Although these were fantastic trips down memory lane, they left the team at OneMusic thinking how cool it would be to get more fresh takes on the sound of a Kiwi Christmas in 2025. 

So, we'd like to propose a challenge to our local music creators, because we're pretty sure everyone would love to hear more local contemporary artists in the air next time the silly season rolls around. Please Santa - can we get more new local Christmas tracks out there this year!?

*Based on data from 70+ businesses across Aotearoa who use an Audoo Audio Meter™ in their stores.