John Wenzel at The Denver Post recently spoke with TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA co-founder/director Paul O'Neill. Following is an excerpt from the story.

Marketing Savvy Turns Christmas Songs Into Cash

If you want to thank — or blame — a particular era for the bulk of the Christmas music that clogs the airwaves after Thanksgiving, look to the Renaissance. That's when a host of early Christian traditions fully merged with European pagan practices, solidifying holiday classics that remain largely unchanged today.

Of course, we've become vastly more sophisticated about marketing and merchandising our Christmas tunes. Their success owes as much to business-wise reinvention as sturdy construction. We can't seem to get our fill of the stuff, and the music groups, naturally, are there to serve it up.

"When you do Christmas music, you're competing with the best of the last 2,000 years," said Paul O'Neill, creator of touring juggernaut Trans-Siberian Orchestra. "In the artistic world, Christmas is the holy grail. It's the hardest success to achieve because you're competing with Mendelssohn, Bach, Handel, Dickens. But if you can have a success with it, it tends to span centuries."

Trans-Siberian Orchestra sells over-the-top spectacle and warm emotions at its shows by marrying blistering guitar solos and orchestration to state-of-the-art spectacle. Its reliable crush of new fans propels the group into the upper echelons of the industry: Its two touring acts will play 140 shows in 90 cities by Jan. 4.

Too much? Maybe, but don't expect a reprieve. Acts like Trans-Siberian and Mannheim Steamroller have perfected a formula that allows their Christmas tunes to continually fall on the green side of the balance sheet over the red. Only a Grinch would prevent someone from having their fill of holiday music, but there's something impressive about the calculated way in which it's marketed. Christmas music is, after all, a commodity.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra even identifies itself as one, casting the band as "an attraction that has enjoyed mega-sales from recordings and concert appearances," according to its press materials. Indeed, the group raked in $45 million in 2007 and played to 1.2 million people. Its Christmas-themed CDs have sold more than 5 million copies, and countless more has been generated in merchandising.

Its over-the-top rock opera approach is no mistake: Artist Greg Hildebrandt ( "Star Wars," Marvel Comics) designs their album covers, elaborate tour programs, T-shirts and more. O'Neill formerly managed and produced bands such as Aerosmith and the Scorpions, and TSO's stage show unashamedly nods toward the Who, ELO and Queen.

"Actually, I stole the whole idea from Pink Floyd," O'Neill said, half-kidding. "We went nuts this year. We've got stages in the front of the arena and behind the sound board. We've got something like 136,000 pounds of lights just over the main stage, and the entire trussing system is moving in time to music like a giant Transformer."

Go to this location for the complete story.