TwitterXmasSingle

Monday, November 26, 2012

Update on what's happening with TwitterXmasSingle2

Hi there,

Brenda here with an update on what has been happening since we all got together on Sunday 11 November.

In short Ian, myself and other have been working hard behind the scenes on Holding on for Christmas and it sounds amazing.

Ian finished it and I heard the final mastered version of the song today and it sounds wonderful. I think you will love it, I hope that you love it as much as we do.

The artwork for the CD has been done and this is what the front cover of the CD will look like

Anthony Curtis @735songs is the very talented person responsible for the creation of the artwork which is gorgeous.

So what happens now?

Well we are working on the video at the moment. Ian is branching out and lending his talents to doing the video. We have some great footage from the Westin Hotel and from the other venues we used for recording the music and the pipes etc.

The song has been booked in with iTunes and other online music stores. But for the song to count for the charts we need you all to download it from iTunes or to buy it from one of the shops that it will [hopefully] be in. The song will be 99 cent to buy on iTunes.

We will have copies of the CD available at the launch for you to buy. These will cost €5. Now I know you are thinking why spend €5 euro when I can get away with 99cent? The answer is three fold:
1. Because it will be nice to have a CD memento of TXS to look back on and to play back in years to come
2. Because they will make nice Christmas presents for family and friends
3. Because the more CDs we sell, the more money we will make for Console Ireland, our chosen charity.

We still have a few hurdles to get over and we need as much media exposure and radio air play as possible.

The song will be sent by email to all radio stations in advance of the launch but it will be embargoed until the time of the launch on Sunday 9 December.

If you are someone who works on a radio or TV show or in other media then we need your help to spread the word about Twitter Xmas Single 2.

We are doing this for Console Ireland who do such amazing work. Many of us have been touched by suicide and we have read about the tragic deaths of so many people this year. We need to say NO to SUICIDE and to let people know that there are wonderful people like those in CONSOLE who can help and reach out a hand.

Hopefully Holding on for Christmas will raise money for their life-saving work and will raise awareness that they exist.

Come on board with us.

More updates soon.

Brenda
xxxxxx

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

A bit about Sunday

Just to update you about Sunday.

We are recording from 1pm in the Westin Hotel, Dublin. To give the hotel a chance to get organised please do not arrive any earlier than 12 noon - the day is going to be a long one!

Tea and coffee will be provided by the wonderful folks at the Westin Hotel but please bring a bottle of water as there will be a lot of singing!

If you could wear something Christmassy and bring something for your head - a woolly hat, a Santa hat, reindeer ears ...... you get the picture.

Because we are recording in the banking hall in the hotel, we will not have a studio or a soundproof area so once we start the recording it will limit us a little bit in terms of having an area for chatting or for children to play. We simply do not have the space! We will also be recording a video on the day so we will need to clear areas to set up some shots etc. I suppose we are looking at the Westin as a recording studio on Sunday and we want to get the choir section done and dusted as soon as we can so as we can let you all home.

Once the choir part has been recorded we will audition singers for the solo parts. We will make a decision based on the voice best suited to the track and the voices which work best together in harmony. It is not about picking one voice over another because one is better - it will all be based on the voices and how well they suit the track.

We have arranged for a sign in upon arrival so please leave your name, twittername and contact phone number. We will have some very cool teenagers on the sign in so be nice!

If anyone has any last minute questions please tweet @brendadrumm using #txs2

We are really looking forward to Sunday and Ian and I really hope that you like the song.

Brenda
X

Monday, November 5, 2012

This is why we are doing Twitter Xmas Single 2

So TwitterXmasSingle was great fun last year, a magical experience, a day full of laughter but there was a serious side to what we were doing - raising funds for Unit * in Holles Street and raising awareness of the wonderful work done for the tiniest babies who arrive into the world too early.

This year we hope that the recording will be just as magical an experience and that there will be lots of fun and laughter too. Once again, there is a serious side to what we are doing this year as we are trying to raise funds for Console.

This is who they are and what they do:

Console was established in 2002 by Paul Kelly after he had experienced the grief of losing a loved one by Suicide. Through his loss, Paul recognised a need for a dedicated Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention Service here in Ireland.

Since then Console has developed into a National Organisation supporting people in Suicidal Crisis and those Bereaved by Suicide through Professional Counselling, Support and Helpline Services.

Console is a National Service with Centres in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Athlone, Wexford and Kildare.

So now that you know who they are and what they do please support us with TwitterXmasSingle 2 once the song is released. Download it and spread the word. You don't even have to wait for the song, you can donate to them now. All the information you need and all the different ways you can donate are available on their website at the following link: http://www.console.ie/index.php?contentid=donations

I doubt that there will be a single person in the TwitterXmasSingle choir who has NOT been touched by suicide. I know that I have. Last week when we made the decision to approach Console about the TwitterXmasSingle, I had no idea that within half an hour of contacting them, that I would hear about the tragic death, the sucide of a friend.

Please support the life-saving work that Console are doing and if you are feeling down, feeling suicidal then please reach out to someone.

See www.console.ie for information.

Brenda

XX

TXS 2 - what we still need tweeps

Okay so by now you probably know that we are doing a Twitter Xmas Single 2, right? Okay good.

We are announcing the venue and times later on today so stand by.

There are still some things we need help with:

A graphic designer to design the cover for the single for iTunes and other online stores and to the design for the CD insert
On the subject on CDs we will only be able to produce CDs if we get sponsorship so any person out there who might be able to sponsor the CDs, we would love to hear from you twitterxmassingle <at> gmail.com
Banners and visuals for use in the venue - anyone who can put together a couple of pull-up banners and a backdrop of Christmassy stuff and the words Twitter Xmas Single 2 and the hashtag #txs2
If anyone would like to do props like the delightful ones we had last year of twitter birds etc, then that would be
We might still have some musical slots to be filled but we will update this later.
Press photographers would be particularly welcome to the recording on Sunday 11th November.
We will have more information about other photographers once we have the venue confirmed. [Just to clarify this - amateur photographers are welcome of course. Up to a couple of days ago we thought we would be in a recording studio and space was very very limited for photographers. In trying to manage expectations, we asked non press photographers to bear with us until we had more information. We now have the venue confirmed and space is NOT an issue so 'amateur' photographers are welcome but as with everyone taking part on the day, they will have to register with @brendadrumm using the hashtag #txs2. Hope this is now very very clear!]

Updated: 5 November 2012

The TwitterXmasSingle 2 List

Below is a list of all those who have signed up to take part in Twitter Xmas Single 2. Please email me at twitterxmassingle@gmail.com if your name is not features. We have had no many tweeps signing up that we may have missed one or two. Names from Facebook will also be added later today:

The List

@brendadrumm
@icannanan
@ckennedypr
@mduffywriter
@TheWestinDublin
@maidrinruadh
@bingobaa
@carolinefraher
@ciaramcduffman
@maireadflanagan
@doalty
@SpNeedsParents
@cagssoc
@clairehearty
@bsweetmanmorris
@detteus
@pekalton
@lightnessalways
@mariondublin
@goldenplec
@50ftroman
@EK_Tobin
@h_a_quinn
@emma_clerkin
@ancabhancailin
@speedyhargo
@niamheyb
@iacanlune
@elleplace
@fleurman
@heres_Ty
@eileen27
@davidclearskies
@thechurch_ie
@jilliangodsil
@toruairc
@phil_garland
@jasminkagriffin
@meadejonathan
@samanthaelong
@munstermaid
@subuckley
@sab_mc
@clairemaryr
@kevinmcdonnel
@carenkennedy
@aideenkelly
@lisaok
@itscherrysue
@barbarascully
@missblt
@sandracoffey
@JFTaxi and his lovely wife
@bryangln
@dionsis
@johnivory
@dleacht
@hylandireland
@mralphleonard
@angharadW
@735songs
@juneshannon
@suejleonard
PaulMurray
Astra O Leary
Noel cuddy
Moya Muldowney
Roisin Magee
@claireguckian
@nightlord2009
@digitaldarragh
@consoleireland [Our charity of choice this year]
@marketmusic
David Byrne
Aoibhin Redmond
Heather Aiken
@aisling_larkin AislingLarkin
Charlie Heron
Sandra Coffey
Joey [not the one from Friends]
Eileen White
Louise McCartney
Gavin Byrne
Christine Saloranta
Jennifer McKeever
Kevin McDonnell
Eimear Smith
@auntyamo
@madelineXD
@klutzyclayur
@piperhawk
@hollyfrodo
@mauradonohoe
Chloe Lahart
@enda_story_
@swimmerdonegal
@buachailldana2
Clare O'Driscoll
Davinia Murray
Kieran Murray
Alex Cuddy
Aideen Kelly
Darren O Reilly
Niall Murphy
Alan Chadwick
@embergreen
@powersflowers
@seamuskearney
@aislingcahill
Brenda Kador
@denisedeegan
@marysweetman
@aineeco
@daveleavy1
@talkpiece
@sarahisnothere
@IrPsych
@pdrgmrdt
@carm_m_h
@grawbod
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5
Student 6
Student 7
Student 8
Student 9
Student 10 [names to be confirmed]
Leah Nolan
Leah's Mum
Karen Nolan
Rachel Fitzgerald
@shane_murphy
Anna Murphy
@DearbhailDibs
@richjm612

There are some more names to be added but just sourcing twitter handles for them. There are also some people to be added who contacted us by email and we will add those shortly.

Apologies if your name is not on the list. We have asked people to opt in this year so if you want to be involved then you need to tweet @brendadrumm using the hashtag #txs2

Ends

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Twitter Xmas Single Part Deux #txs2

‏@BrendaDrumm

So what about a #twitterxmassingle2 ? Christmas number 1? Who is in? #xmasfactor "Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum ...." RT#txs2 [Tweeted on Saturday 20 October]

So the tweet has been tweeted and we have @ICallanan on board as musical director and @ckennedyPR on board as PR and overnight we have 39 people signed up to take part in the choir and/or as soloists.

So TwitterXmasSingle2 or #TXS2 to use the hashtag we have created is officially ON!

For those who were not involved last year this is what happened:

TwitterXmasSingle1

TwitterXmasSingle came about following a tweet by @BrendaDrumm on 19 November 2011. The song Winter Song was chosen on Twitter and the charity to benefit was Unit 8 Neonatal Unit in Holles Street in Dublin
We had 140+ characters involved in the recording of the song
Winter Song was recorded in the Westin Hotel in Dublin on 27 November 2011
The song and video were launched on Sunday 4 December
Winter Song/#twitterxmassingle went to number 1 on iTunes on Sunday 4 December and stayed there for several days beating Rhianna and others
The bookies had us tipped to be number 1 for Christmas
When the official IRMA charts came out the week after the launch we entered the charts as a new entry at number 8 – we made it to the top ten.
We made a short documentary about the making of the #twitterxmassingle which has had over 1,200 views on YouTube
The official video has had over 4,500 views on YouTube
The writers of the song Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson loved what we did and tweeted @brendadrumm and @icallanan about the song.
Media outlets which covered the story: TV3 News, Xpose, Ireland AM and Morning Show. RTE: John Murray Show, Morning Ireland, RTE TV 9pm News and 2FM. Today FM, Newstalk News and the Global Village. Spirit Radio. East Coast FM. KFM. Dublin City FM. Irish Independent. Daily Mail. RSVP. Woman’s Way. Anglo Celt. Kildare Post, Leinster Leader and Kildare Nationalist. Classic Hits 4FM. BBC Radio Ulster. U105 Radio. Entertainment.ie and so many blogs about it we lost count. Also Hot Press Magazine. Radio Snowflake.
We raised money and a lot of awareness for Unit 8 in Holles Street but #twitterxmassingle was about the goodwill and generosity of so many people, it was about giving the hardworking staff in Holles Street a much needed lift. It was about giving the parents of premature babies a sign to say that people are thinking about you and what you are going through. It was ultimately about the real meaning of Christmas. It was unique.

So we decided this year, why not do it again? Thanks to the wonderful support of so many people in the last twelve hours, we are doing it again and we would like as many people as possible on board.

Here is what we need:

Venue for recording the song - needs to be as soundproof as possible from the outside world
Venue for the launch: would need to have good capacity and screen to show video etc [we are now sorted for this and will have details shortly]
Media outlets to get involved to tell people what we are doing [this can happen later]
Musicians with experience
A designer to design a new CD image for us and other little designs as well
Singers for the choir
Soloists
Studio time
A sponsor to fund the cost of producing CDs this year [about €6,000]
Engineers to assist with the recording and to man the desk while @icallanan gets us into shape for singing
Someone to design and produce some banners or visuals for use on the day of the recording and for the launch
Anyone who could supply Santa hats for at least 100 people
Anyone who could design and produce some Twitter props for us
A videographer to make a video to go with the song which would need to be recorded on 11 November and maybe one or two other studio sessions and ready to be viewed online on Sunday 9 December

We have a charity in mind which is very deserving and it is a cause which affects so many people here in Ireland. We will let you have details as soon as we get a nod from them that they want to come on board.

The song is an original song which is currently being signed off on and we will let you have details on that as soon as possible. I am already going around singing so that can't be a bad thing.

We are hoping to record the choir on Sunday 11 November so please save that date if you are interested in taking part. This year everyone needs to opt in to the recording and launch as we are not adding any names automatically - if you want to take part you have to tweet us to let us know and we will add you to the list on Twitter.

Our email is twitterxmassingle@gmail.com

We are on Facebook at Twitter Xmas Single

The blog is here at www.twitterxmassingle.blogspot.ie

If you are a musician who would like to help us to record the track then please email us with a link to where we can hear your work. We will have a very quick turnaround on this so musicians need to have experience.

We would love to have as many people from last year involved, if you can, but there were so many people who could not get involved last year and we look forward to your involvement this year.

That's all for the moment. If you can help with any of the above, please tweet @BrendaDrumm or email twitterxmassingle@gmail.com

TwitterXmasSingle was one of the best experiences ever - ask anyone who was involved. We made memories to last a lifetime and made lots of new friends on the way.

Watch the video of the making of #twitterxmassingle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9JwaNtViLM&feature=relmfu

Watch the video to go with the song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87lDRkFpBaU

Join in for #tx2

Brenda Drumm

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

#TwitterXmasSingle Sums

Well the sums are in for some of the sales of Winter Song, the first ever #twitterxmassingle. We launched the song online on Sunday 4^th December 2011 and they full report was made available to me on Monday of this week [5 February 2012]. We used Tunecore to distribute our song online and as you know we were not able to get a licence in time to produce cds for the Christmas market.

The sums and totals we have are for sales on iTunes and they are listed for iTunes in different countries – see list below.

In terms of what we have in figures to date please note the following:

We sold 2,379 downloads of the single to date. The bulk of the sales are from iTunes and the countries these are from are listed below. There were some sales on other platforms which are included too and there may still be other sales to be accounted for and which will be notified to us in the next report.

After iTunes commission the balance in our account is currently 2119.99 US dollars and after this is changed into euros we will have a total of approximately 1,600 euros. Please note that this figure might change slightly depending on exchange rates on the day the money is transferred from us to Holles Street.

We received a donation of €200 on the day of the recording and the Army Number 1 band sang for us on College Green during Christmas week and raised around 1,000 euro [to be confirmed].

Overall it’s a job well done. It was also a huge amount of fun, all for a very serious cause – the babies in Unit 8 in Holles Street. The bulk of the sales were made in the week after we launched the song and if we had had the CDs then we would have had a very good chance at the Christmas number 1 but we did not have time to get the licence processed.

I am told that our total sales are very good for just making it available as a download so we should all be very proud. If we had more time in the run up to Christmas who knows what we could have achieved.

The very interesting thing to note is that we are still selling copies of the song on iTunes here and there so do keep plugging it on Facebook and Twitter and we will keep passing on the money.

All that remains is for me to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved – all the singers and supporters and to everyone who tweeted for us. Special thanks goes to Ian Callanan [@icallanan] for sharing his musical genius with us and to the Westin Hotel in Dublin for hosting us, not once, but twice during the project.

I have been very humbled by all that has happened and by the generosity of people with their time and their talents so thanks again.

We were never going to raise millions but the awareness we have raised is priceless to Unit 8 in Holles Street and hopefully what we have done has given them a head start for a new fundraising drive for all they want to do to make Unit 8 and the hospital the best there is! A special thanks to the staff, parents and residents of Unit 8 for welcoming the madness that was #twitterxmassingle with open arms.

Which of us could have known this time last year that before the end of the year we would have a top ten single and a number one on iTunes? Certainly not me! So all that remains is for me to ask – are you up for #twitterxmassingle2?

Postscript Summer 2012:
We just call a call to say we raised just over one thousand euro from radio air play of Winter Song, the twitterxmassingle and the cheque has gone directly to Holles Street.

Brenda

xxxxx

Downloads on iTunes listed as per the Tunecore report:

· USA 225 downloads

· Australia/New Zealand 10 downloads

· Canada 17 downloads

· Denmark 1 download

· Italy 1 download

· CH 2 downloads

· Belgium 1 download

· France 1 download

· Estonia 1 download

· Ireland 140 downloads

· Norway 1 download

· Ireland 1894 downloads

· Netherlands 4 downloads

· Denmark 7 downloads

· Great Britain 73 downloads

· Japan 1 downloads

Background to #TwitterXmasSingle:

· TwitterXmasSingle came about following a tweet by @BrendaDrumm on 19 November 2011The song Winter Song was chosen on Twitter and the charity to benefit was Unit 8 Neonatal Unit in Holles Street in Dublin

· We had 140+ characters involved in the recording of the song

· Winter Song was recorded in the Westin Hotel in Dublin on 27 November 2011

· The song and video were launched on Sunday 4 December

· Winter Song/#twitterxmassingle went to number 1 on iTunes on Sunday 4 December and stayed there for several days beating Rhianna and others

· The bookies had us tipped to be number 1 for Christmas

· When the official IRMA charts came out the week after the launch we entered the charts as a new entry at number 8 – we made it to the top ten.

· We made a short documentary about the making of the #twitterxmassingle which has had over 1,200 views on YouTube

· The official video has had over 3,000 views on YouTube

· The writers of the song Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson loved what we did and tweeted @brendadrumm and @icallanan about the song.

· Media outlets which covered the story: TV3 News, Xpose, Ireland AM and Morning Show. RTE: John Murray Show, Morning Ireland, RTE TV 9pm News and 2FM. Today FM, Newstalk News and the Global Village. Spirit Radio. East Coast FM. KFM. Dublin City FM. Irish Independent. Daily Mail. RSVP. Woman’s Way. Anglo Celt. Kildare Post, Leinster Leader and Kildare Nationalist. Classic Hits 4FM. BBC Radio Ulster. U105 Radio. Entertainment.ie and so many blogs about it we lost count. Also Hot Press Magazine. Radio Snowflake.

Ends