Hello, it's Tom Robinson here with this week's BBC Music's Introducing Mixtape - now broadcast on Mondays from 4-5am on BBC Radio 6 Music.
To kick off 2021 we bring you a short selection of the many bands and artists we hope will reach a wider audience this year...
YARD ACT, AFRO CLUSTER, MOAK, ARLO PARKS, AJIMAL, CONNIE CONSTANCE, TEBI REX, SANS SOUCIS, YOUTH SECTOR, CHROMA, DO NOTHING, SINEAD O’BRIEN, FOLLY GROUP, CARO, CIELO, BENEFITS, and BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD
How to Listen...
This is the episode broadcast at 4am on Monday 4 January 2021. You can listen again for 30 days after broadcast on BBC Sounds via this link.
How To Download...
To receive the show automatically every week, subscribe to "BBC Music Introducing Mixtape" wherever you get your podcasts from. These are difficult times for almost everybody, and all the artists have allowed us to include their tunes in this podcast so that as many people as possible can enjoy them for free.
However...
These difficult times are particularly hard for music artists: live income has dried up, bills still have to be paid. So if you do love any of these tunes as much as I do, please consider buying them direct from the artists via the links below. For musicians operating on a shoestring, literally every pound you can spare will make a difference.
Start times below are for the podcast version of the show...
YARD ACT - Fixer Upper [starts 00:09]
https://yardact.bandcamp.com
AFRO CLUSTER - Back Into It [starts 03:29]
https://afrocluster.bandcamp.com
MOAK - Tomorrow’s Promise [starts 07:30]
https://www.moakonline.com
ARLO PARKS - Black Dog [starts 11:38]
https://www.arloparksofficial.com
AJIMAL - Above All Else Be Kind [starts 15:15]
https://ajimal.bandcamp.com
CONNIE CONSTANCE - Costa Del Margate [starts 20:20]
https://connieconstance.bandcamp.com
TEBI REX - Aaaagh [starts 24:00]
https://tebirex.bandcamp.com
SANS SOUCIS - Air [starts 27:15]
https://sanssoucismusic.com
YOUTH SECTOR - No Fanfare [starts 30:25]
https://www.facebook.com/youthsectorband
CHROMA - Tair Ferch Doeth [starts 34:05]
https://www.chroma.band
DO NOTHING - New Life [starts 37:14]
http://donothingband.com
SINEAD OBRIEN - Fall with Me [starts 39:51]
https://www.facebook.com/SINEADOBRIENPOETRY
FOLLY GROUP - Fewer Closer Friends [starts 43:15]
https://follygroup.bandcamp.com
CARO - Cat's Pyjamas [starts 46:32]
http://www.carotheband.com
CIELO - Ride or Die [starts 49:26]
https://www.facebook.com/Cieloomusic
BENEFITS - Imperfect [starts 52:42]
https://www.facebook.com/benefitstheband
BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD - Science Fair [starts 56:11]
https://blackcountrynewroad.bandcamp.com
PS FOR ARTISTS:
(1) FRAUDULENT PLUGGER WARNING: A number of artists we've featured on this show have received emails from a radio plugger with an impressive list of former clients saying how much he liked their record and offering his company's services. Typically something like:
"Hi - I'm a national radio plugger... I came across 'YOURTRACKNAME' today, I'm a big fan of the single and wanted to find out if you have anyone looking after national radio yet?"
This man has taken substantial payments from these artists, sent them a couple of bogus "NATIONAL RADIO REPORT" documents, and then stopped replying to their emails. If something similar happens to you after appearing on this show, the band Signal Committee would like to hear from you via Twitter or Facebook.
In our own experience emerging artists usually get MUCH better results themselves than a plugger does - just by targeting radio shows and DJs direct via social media. For suggestions on how to do your own music promotion see the free advice section at my Fresh On The Net blog (freshonthenet.co.uk).
Radio airplay is a great affirmation of your work. It's great to be able to mention it on your CV and social media. But radio play won't make as much longterm difference as you may think - it comes, and then it goes. Radio can't kickstart your career from scratch, only you can do that. Bulding an audience for your music (and continuing to write great songs) takes time and effort. The good news is that, unlike radio play, it's entirely within your own power to achieve and costs next to nothing. And although this only one man's opinion, you'll find a few suggestions about how to do this this in my closing talk for BBC Introducing Live 2019.
Hiring a radio plugger is an expensive gamble - and definitely only worth considering when there's already a genuine buzz about your song out there in the music world and a growing audience for your music. Radio can't generate that audience from scratch. But once an artist's career starts building momentumn - with views, plays and comments growing measurably each week - then an expertly run radio campaign can be a great way of putting a foot on the accelerator.
So if you go down that route, how can you find a genuinely expert promo company to do this? Suggestion: copy and keep the weekly playlists published by your target radio stations every week, and look up which small labels are regularly getting featured. Then google those labels, drop them an email, and ask which radio pluggers they use. [NB bigger labels tend to have their own in-house promo teams.]
And however things pan out, don't forget to carry on uploading your new releases to BBC Introducing so that we can carry on supporting you as your career unfolds.
(2) We only get enough airtime on this show to feature artists - even our absolute favourites - about four times a year, however much we love their work. So after you've been been on the Mixtape, please wait 12 weeks before sending me your next brilliant track. This leaves us time to help a load of other deserving artists meanwhile.
The best way of getting a tune direct to me is via Fresh On The Net using Soundcloud. From 10m on Monday mornings anybody is welcome to send us a track and we keep the inbox open until 200 submissions have arrived - so it's best to get in early. We publish all 200 tunes on our Soundcloud each week, and a dozen of us then listen to every single track. And be sure to also upload your tune to BBC Introducing, to make it eligible for Introducing airplay...
Tom Robinson