How to list artist name for Holiday songs on distributor site (CDBaby)

[MTN-Jer]

Some friends write original Christian songs. I'm helping them get music online this year. They'll use CDBaby, since I'm familiar with it.

I need clarification on how to list their artist name for their holiday songs vs non-holiday.

From the "Introduction to AMP" webinars, I believe they're supposed to put " (Holiday)" in parentheses at the end of the Artist Name field within CDBaby, so it can be listed as a separate artist in Pandora.

They're okay with their holiday songs being separated like that on Pandora. But they've checked in Spotify and Apple Music, and say artists like Mariah Carey and Kelly Clarkson aren't categorized with separate holiday artist names in those services (for example, "All I want for Christmas is You" is listed at the top of Mariah's main artist profile on Spotify).

So, they're wondering what I'm going to put in CDBaby so that their Christmas songs are listed with all their other songs under their main artist name in Spotify and Apple, but listed under a separate "(Holiday)" artist name in Pandora?

I didn't know what to tell them... or what I should enter into CDBaby to make that happen. Or, do we just enter it in CDBaby without the "(Holiday)" designation, and have me write to AMP Support afterwards to have the Holiday tag added?

Thanks,
Jer of the band Mitch the Needle

[ChrisPandora · Accepted solution]

Hey @MTN-Jer - This is a great question.

As you probably noticed, we operate a little differently on Pandora 😎

Since most people who listen to Pandora use radio rather then on-demand listening, we break out Holiday and Children's music to their own profiles for an artist. We believe that when you want to listen to Holiday music, that that is all you want to hear. Having dedicated Holiday artist profiles allows listeners to fully immerse themselves and then get back to their regular programming once January 1st hits.

In this instance, if your friends have the genre for their music set to be something like "Holiday" or "Christmas" with their distributor, our system should automatically create a Holiday profile for them.

If this profile is not automatically created, they can send us an email at amp-support@pandora.com. We will be able to make the change on our end.

I hope all of this information is helpful, Jer! Let me know if you have any other questions about it ✌️