Tim: So here’s a weird thing to add to your Christmas. Push play, I’ll explain later.
Tom: This is going to be bad, isn’t it?
Tim: Just push play.
Tom: Oh no, no, no.
Tim: Really? I think it’s rather fun. Not much explaining to do, I suppose, or at least I don’t have much of an explanation for it. A band of some sort, or maybe just some guy in his bedroom, made The Green Days of Christmas, full of instrumental versions of all their best-known tracks with sleigh bells, panpipes, glockenspiels and all other tinkly instruments. Some would ask why; others like myself would say well why not, and why has it only been done for Green Day and Metallica?
Tom: I can actually answer that: it’s because there’s a lot of money in Spotify, and other music licensing avenues, and even from the Wal-Mart one-dollar bargain bin. If you’re willing to look at the “long tail”, and churn out a thousand terrible cover versions as quickly as you can, the chances are that you might actually get enough back off royalties to make it worth your while.
Tim: Terrible? Or rather fun as a novelty and doing no actual harm to anyone? I personally see a lot of potential in a festive Daz Sampson anthology, so we’ll have that for 2015, please. Oh, and merry Christmas to you.
Tom: Merry Christmas, Tim.