Why we should all be proud

OK, so Tom Waits didn't make it to Number One for Christmas, he didn't even make it to the top ten. That said, we should all be proud of what we've achieved here, and here's why.

• This blog and campaign is just two weeks old and yet in that time we've managed to get a 30 year old song into the Irish top 30 at the most competitive time of the year for singles, through online sales alone (just to put that in context, only a small percentage of the number 1's sales were bought online - just over 15% to be more precise).
• We managed to attract the interest (and maybe even capture the imagination) of The Irish Times, Today FM, 2FM, Phantom FM, The Star and a wealth of bloggers.
• While we failed to topple X-Factor, we managed to make a point in all of the above outlets about how boring the show has made things, and while it's still number one in 2007 you can't help but feel as though the worm is turning (even if this campaign has nothing to do with that).
• Paddy Power thought Tom Waits was the third most likely to get to the number 1 spot, behind X-Factor and The Pogues. They were way off, of course, but they certainly took us seriously.
• In the week leading up to Christmas we managed to make Tom Waits outsell the old reliables like 'Do they know it's Christmas?' by Band Aid, 'Driving home for Christmas' by Chris Rea, 'I wish it could be Christmas every day' by Wizzard, 'It's the most wonderful time' by Andy Williams and 'Santa Claus is comin' to town' by Bruce Springsteen.
  
• We managed to get Tom Waits played on daytime radio in Ireland for the first time in a long time (too long a time, if I do say so myself).
• We introduced a fantastic song and artist to at least a handful of new listeners and hopefully opened their eyes to the power of Tom Waits!
• And if we're really, really, really lucky, Tom Waits will notice slightly more royalties coming from Ireland this month and will decide to drop by on his next tour (chance would be a fine thing!).

A hundred thanks to the bloggers who gave us a mention, the people who visited and joined the facebook group and, most importantly, those who bought the song and got it where it is.

Proper thanks to come but I just wanted to say that there's no reason to be ashamed at the outcome, even if it wasn't the ideal one!

Not got a credit card? Never fear

We need people to buy online to make Waits number one, but one limitation to this is that a credit card (or visa debit card) is required - not even the trusty Laser will work anywhere that we know of.

So what if you want to buy "Christmas card..." but don't have a credit card? Well why not follow the suggestion of Vincent Lacey on Facebook and invest in an iTunes voucher instead?

One place you can get these vouchers in the offline world is in a 3G store (locations here). You can also get someone you know with a credit card to buy you vouchers online and send them on to you to use.

(And if you know of anywhere else besides 3G where people can pick up an iTunes voucher in Ireland then leave a comment with details.)

Another solution is to get a 3V card, which is kind of like a temporary Visa card you can top-up in shops or through your phone. The problem here is that the charges are quite high, so you'll end up paying far more than 99c for one song.

So if you know of any other way that people without a Visa or Mastercard can buy a song online or if you know of any reason why either of the above won't work on iTunes (or anywhere else) then let us know.

Campaign update

Last night, just as Tom Waits' main competition was being finalised on TV, I hit the airwaves to promote the campaign to get Tom Waits to Number 1 for Christmas in Ireland.

Una Mullaly was there too and besides Waits we discussed other alternative Christmas songs from the likes of Sufjan Stevens and The Flaming Lips.

If you missed the piece you can download it here (right click, save). Fionn, Zoe and co. were kind enough to wrap their programme up with the song too, although I didn't put that into the recording.

In terms of how well things are going so far, the campaign's momentum is continuing to grow. Last night the facebook group hit the 400 members mark (which is impressive considering it was only set up on Monday night) and the song itself hit number 29 in the Irish iTunes charts, based on Friday's sales only.

For one day's work that's a pretty solid performance and with over 4 days left of buying time left we can only hope the momentum continues.

If you've not bought already, please check this thread out for more information on where you can spend a few cent and have your purchased counted in the Irish chart. If you have bought already then make sure you tell everyone you know about the campaign and encourage them to spare a euro or so for the cause! You could also buy again in a different online outlet if you're feeling extra generous!

Hello Phantom Phans!

A massive hello to anyone dropping by on the back of Phantom FM's coverage of our campaign - make yourselves at home!

Thanks to Una for giving the whole thing a mention and to Simon Maher for giving it his seal of approval - I figure if anywhere's going to appreciate something like this it's going to be Dublin's alternative music radio station!

If you're on facebook be sure to hook up with our campaign group and also be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed here - and hopefully between Friday coming and next Thursday you'll be up for sparing a mere Euro or so for a quality Christmas tune.

For anyone who missed the mention, I've taken the liberty of recording and uploading it here (right click and save) - hope that's OK with the folks at Phantom.

Facebook group hits 100 (Already!)

Sure, it's not a huge number in the grand scheme of things but the Facebook group for our campaign has just passed the 100 members mark despite only being around for just over a day.

We have a long way to go but it's still early days, and the facebook group is by no means representative of the amount of people supporting the campaign in general!

There are also a few international members in the group and that's great - maybe they can start their own campaign in their locality! Besides, you don't have to be Irish to support the campaign in principle, so even if you're not, join up!

Getting support

Thanks to all the bloggers who have posted about this campaign so far - it's already starting to kick off and hopefully the momentum will continue.

The important thing now is to get some support together so if you're a blogger please give us a mention on your site. If you're not a blogger maybe you can let friends of yours know about the campaign if you think it's their sort of thing - just point them in this direction or the direction of the facebook group.

To get into the Christmas charts purchases will have to be made between Friday 14th and Thursday 20th of December - not before and not after.

I'll be posting about that in more detail sooner to those all important dates!

So for now, go forth and spread the word!

'Waits For Christmas' Facebook group

I've set up a facebook group for anyone looking to join - the link is on the right hand side there.

Join now and invite all your friends!