How many songs and how long is your show?

[jjdurrant]

I am going to be running 8 songs. Total time about 19mins.

[George Simmons]

When all is said and done, I'll probably have 45-50 songs total this year. Sunday - Thursday my early show, which loops from 5:30 - 7:00 will probably be about 45 minutes long. My middle show, which loops from 7:00 - 9:00 will also probably be about 45 minutes long. My late show, which runs from 9:00 to 10:00 will likely be close to an hour long and then my shutdown Pink Floyd sequences kick in right after 10:00. On Fridays and Saturdays, early show ends at 7:30, middle show ends at 9:30 and the shutdown sequences kick in right after 11:00.

[WhitePlainsNY]

I'm running 52 songs, with 39 repeats so the show runs 5:30p - 10p on weekdays. The shows on Fri, Sat and Sun have 12 more repeats of the original 52 songs to have the show run to 10:30pm.

[lightzilla]

Well like George I have something like 60 songs and like George I split up my songs.

I have about 4 SD cards and I change them every 1.5 hours and stop the show when the last SD card made it through.

Well actually that only goes for the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas. I play 1 SD card (1.5 hours) from December 1st to about the 15th except on weekends I run a 3 hour show but after the 15th I run a show from 6:00pm to 10:00pm.....and until mid-night Christmas Eve & day.

I have some songs on my computer that require video and so that my bonus feature.

[amcdonald307]

I live off the beaten path (out in country) and people make a special pilgrimage to see my display (well, about a 10 minute drive or so for most). When they show up they expect to sit through the whole offering. If they have a very favorite, they will want to be able to sit until it plays again.

Feedback I've gotten, including from the Senior Citizen home that brings a bus out a few times a week, the optimal length appears to be about 20 minutes. I have more than that programmed up, but I will do my best to make sure that on any given night whatever I have running will be about 20 minutes and then will repeat.

In a different set of circumstances than mine, I would maybe have a different answer. If I had a lot of drive by traffic and no one stayed more than one or two songs at most, I'd be more inclined to have "more". If traffic was a problem and I wanted to keep them moving I'd do less (maybe only 2 or 3 songs).

[jjdurrant]

Dang! I would have never guessed your shows were so intricate. Ok maybe I would have.

Here I thought my 8 song 19mins was going to be too long!

[Victory402]

6 songs, 21 min. here

[Jim Hans]

12 songs and about 50 minutes for me.

[WhitePlainsNY]

jjdurrant wrote:

Dang! I would have never guessed your shows were so intricate. Ok maybe I would have.

Here I thought my 8 song 19mins was going to be too long!

It all depends on your situation. Sometimes a shorter show is better for the crowd you're looking to entertain.

I needed a long show for transient viewers. I wanted to entertain them for the few minutes they're watching but since I have nowhere for them to sit in their cars without creating a nightmare I keep it everchanging.

[George Simmons]

My way of scheduling shows basically evolved from not knowing any better. The first year traffic wasn't an issue. During a real busy period there might be four or five cars at once. For long periods of time, especially after 8:00 there was no one. I noticed as it got busier closer to Christmas that there were very few kids after 8:00 and I felt awkward playing Santa Claus songs to adults so I skewed the shows later in the evening more to adults.

Last year, the traffic was steady-to-heavy almost all night every night. We've got room for a dozen cars within good viewing distance, and most of those spaces were filled most of the nights. It slowed down after 9:00 but it was rare if the street was empty when the shutdown sequence played at ten. Lots of times I delayed the end of the show until those folks had their fill. There were kids later in the evenings than the first year, but rarely after 9:00. It was warmer last year also.

I expect it will be busier still this year, but I don't know how much more so. My contingency plan if it gets too congested would be to still run the different shows at different times of the evening, but drastically shorten the shows, especially earlier in the evening, down to 20 minutes or so to get quicker turnover.

[lightzilla]

jjdurrant wrote:

Dang! I would have never guessed your shows were so intricate. Ok maybe I would have.

Here I thought my 8 song 19mins was going to be too long!

Like some have said it depends where you live.

For me I am a good hour from the west side of Edmonton, about 1.25 hours from south Edmonton and maybe 2 hours from the far north side of Edmonton.

Not only that but it is very cold here and at -46.2c (-51F) no one moves much and stay in doors. I think I get 2 cars that might stay a song or two a night but the other cars look at a song and leave.

Out of 750 people in the Village maybe 200 or 300 saw maybe 1 song over the last 3 years. This will be the 4th year.

As for a favorite song I do not think that is a problem for me because I get no requests, I get no walkers in very cold weather just a few cars.

However I believe that Walter Murphy's "A fifth Of Beethoven" gets watched the most followed by David Foster's version of "Carol Of The Bells". When those two songs play cars seem to stay.

Bottom line is I can play countless songs because like someone said "cars are always on the move for the most part.

[Bob Wingert]

45 songs > 4 shows. First one rolls off with a little Chevy Chase intro, you know the "drum roll please" Pieced a lot of clips together to create that.

Show 1: 6p- 7 mainly more kiddie type songs. Like Chipmunk Christmas etc...

Show 2: 7-8p Christmas rock songs blended with some Twisted Sister Christmas type stuff

Show 3: 8-9p More of the same

Show 4: 9-10p Little harder rock but still Christmas type songs

Thats like my Sunday - Thurs deal. On Fri & Sat I add a 10p - 11 with a hodge podge of really cool songs. Still keeping the Christmas theme with these songs.

* NOTE: Every 3rd song there's a break for a Christmas Vacation Tid-Bit. I found the funniest one's to use.


http://www.moviewavs.com/0059305935/MP3S/Movies/National_Lampoons_Christmas_Vacation/overdoingit.mp3

[PaulXmas]

10 1/2 songs (one is 36 seconds)

25:30:00

It gets very cold here and I don't think anyone besides me will watch the whole thing.

[shfr26]

Last year I had 18 songs with about 25 seconds of filler for a total of 1 hour. Ran from 6:00 to 10:00 Sun to Thurs, 6:00 to 11:00 Friday and Saturday

[Guest Don Gillespie]

This year going with close to 50 songs I run everything on a loop starts at 5pm and shuts down at 10pm I like to look out the window and see the lights going at all times I didn't work for 300 days of the year to not listen to what I have accomplished I don't think it matters what you do, as long as you are happy with it less than 45 days till light up whoo hooo

:]:]:]:]:]

[Austen]

I usually have music playing for 10 minutes, then the show starts with 3 songs, then after those 3 songs the music comes back on for 10 minutes. (when the 10 min music is on, the lights are all just on.)


But this year I wanted to try something new..
I have 2 songs, each songs has about 4 different little songs in it, if that makes sense. So my show will be about 8 minutes long, and it will be looping continuously.

[James George]

Last year's show started at 6pm and consisted of 9 songs lasting 24 minutes, then repeated until 10pm. I have 32 channels now and am working on a few more songs for this year's show. We live out in the country but have close neighbors. Although I use the transmit-to-radio method I also put a low volume boombox out on the porch for folks to hear if they walk up towards the house.

[Jamie Taylor]

We have 7 songs.

Two different shows alternating nights. 4 songs lasts 10 mins, then 20 minutes with lights on plus walk through nativity display in back yard. Basically 30 minute rotation.

Most people stop, park and sit down on the large nature strip opposite our house and enjoy the show and then have a look around.

[t.vanhouts]

Hi to all,

Our christmaslight show in the Netherlands contains 15 songs with a total lenght of almost one hour. For this year we want to put some video's in our show.

Some new songs will be edited to the show and others will be deleted. Iam thinking to put a holdmans musicbox dancer video into the lightshow and sequence our own lights to it.

Our show runs from 5 pm till 11 pm every day. the songtitles and show duration is also mentioned on our new website.

Greatings,

Tom and Marielle

[Terry Hurrle]

I just finished my show set up yesterday. I have 13 songs and 3 different announcements in the show and it runs 30 minutes 42 seconds and then repeats.