Hello, it's Tom Robinson here with this week's BBC Music's Introducing Mixtape - broadcast on Mondays from 4-5am on BBC Radio 6 Music. It features an hour of handpicked tunes uploaded to the BBC Introducing website, consisting this week of:
DEADLETTER, YVA, NTANTU, IRINA, BLANKETMAN, RUSSELL SWALLOW, MACHINA X, RACHEL CHINOURIRI, THOSE SNOWFLAKES, ONIPA, JESSIE REID, VENUS GRRRLS, J HENRY, FFSYTHO, FM TOWNS, SELKE, BEIGE BANQUET, and AARON TAYLOR
How to Listen...
This is the episode broadcast at 4am on Monday 1 February 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: income from gigs has dried up, streaming has killed record sales and 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 quid you can spare will make a difference.
Start times below are for the podcast version of the show...
DEADLETTER - Fall of the Big Screen [starts 00:10]
https://www.facebook.com/DEADLETTERTHEBAND
YVA - Fountain Of Youth [starts 03:00]
https://www.facebook.com/YVAmusicuk
NTANTU - Pressure Oh My Goodness [starts 06:15]
https://www.facebook.com/ntantutherapper
IRINA - My Heart Is Online [starts 09:25]
https://soundcloud.com/irina-951237464
BLANKETMAN - Leave The South [starts 12:45]
https://blanketman.bandcamp.com
RUSSELL SWALLOW - Sunrise Sunrise [starts 16:25]
https://russellswallowmusic.bandcamp.com
MACHINA X - Closure [starts 19:00]
https://machina-x.bandcamp.com
RACHEL CHINOURIRI - Darker Place [starts 22 :35]
https://www.rachelchinouriri.com
THOSE SNOWFLAKES - By The Power Of Barnard Castle [starts 25:00]
http://those***ingsnowflakes.co.uk
ONIPA - Forget 2020 [starts 29:00]
https://www.facebook.com/onipamusic
JESSIE REID - Whole Heart [starts 32:25]
https://www.facebook.com/jessiereidmusic
VENUS GRRRLS - Goth Girl [starts 35:45]
https://www.venusgrrrls.com
J HENRY - I Would Love It [starts 38:15]
https://theoneandonlyjhenry.bandcamp.com
FFSYTHO - Mad (Remix) [starts 42:05]
https://ffsytho.bandcamp.com
FM TOWNS - Sweet William [starts 44:45]
https://www.facebook.com/FMTowns
SELKE - Dawnsong [starts 48:05]
https://selke.bandcamp.com
BEIGE BANQUET - Wired_Weird [starts 51:50
https://beigebanquet.bandcamp.com
AARON TAYLOR - Don't Leave Me Alone (feat. Lalah Hathaway) [starts 56:35]
https://iaarontaylor.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