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It’s all over the BBC TV news, Facebook and Twitter – the battle for the Christmas number one – Joe McElderry versus Rage Against the Machine.

The battle is being fuelled over on Facebook where a group has been created and at the time of writing this there are over 912,000 members on the Facebook group (with almost 9000 new members in the last 10 hours).

I actually found two Facebook groups – the official one and a ‘back up group’ with over 167,000 members.

On the Facebook group you will also find how to download the Rage Against the Machine single for free.

In fact later today I am on Newstalk 106 talking with Mark Mortell about the power of social networking in campaigns like this.

Are we taking it all too seriously?

Sony are definitely the winners who ever wins as both artists are on the Sony label – and possibly so are iTunes and other online retailers as downloads and online purchases of the songs will be an influencer in the race for the Christmas number 1. There is an argument being shared in some media that says that who ever wins it is good for the music business and if they reach 500,000 sales each that is unpresedented.

I have to disclose that as a Geordie I’m rooting with Joe – but will I buy his single? That’s the thing with campaigns like this – it’s easy to join a Facebook group but will people take the next step and put their hand in their wallet?

A couple of videos I think are interesting on YouTube though are a spoof video by the Sun :

I also thought that the video created by video production company Scorch London was very clever – demonstrating their talents in video production yet making it very topical – they show the Christmas lights in London timed to music from Rage Against the Machine – now that’s clever online PR.

It’s interesting that on the Rage Against the Machine Facebook Group that I saw on Facebook there is even guidance for how to make your purchase count and they are also encouraging contributions to the charity Shelter.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Sony also made a donation of a percentage of the profits from either song to a charitable cause – therefore both the UK Christmas number 1 and number 2 will be remembered not just for being the UK’s number 1 in 2009, the last Christmas number 1 of the decade, but they both make a lasting difference to the world?

What do you think? Will you or have you bought a copy of either single?

Posted via web from Krishna De: Insights From Ireland On Digital Marketing, Social Media And Entrepreneurship

Additional Resources:

There is some great coverage of the race for the Christmas number 1 on NME.com here.

Discover the most popular YouTube videos of 2009 here – and especially note which is the second most popular YouTube music video.

Update 21 December 2009:

Rap metal act Rage Against The Machine did land the place of the UK Christmas number one.  RATM’s ‘Killing In The Name’ sold more than 500,000 copies in the past week while McElderry’s The Climb chalked up sales of 450,000. Apparently it was not available on CD and is the first download-only Christmas number one, as well as achieving the biggest download sales total in a first week ever in the UK charts.

Contributions to Shelter the charity mentioned above currently stand at £82,211.24.

See an article on Time.com which also provides some interesting information about the background to RATM.