Those 32 shows air every Saturday night, featuring local artists with airplay, interviews and sessions. They try to provide local gigs, festival stages and outside broadcasts whenever possible - and to forward their discoveries to sister shows on local and national BBC stations for further airplay.[1]
BBC Music Introducing was launched in 2007[3] as by this period, many BBC local radio stations had launched a weekly local music show to share and champion local artists. As shows such as The Box Office on
BBC Three Counties Radio, The Download on
BBC Radio Oxford, The Friday Session on
BBC Hereford and Worcester, Raw Talent on
BBC Radio Humberside, The Weekender on
BBC Radio Nottingham and South Live on
BBC Southern Counties Radio proved popular there was interest in developing a more coherent structure and brand for new music on the BBC. These shows soon turned into the earliest BBC Music Introducing shows.[4]
In September 2010, all BBC local unsigned music shows that had not renamed themselves as part of 'Introducing' were re-branded.[5] In 2010 BBC Music Introducing was awarded the best new platform to discover music at the
BT Digital Music Awards. In May 2011, BBC Music Introducing won the Gold award for Best Use of Multiplatform at the
Sony Radio Academy Awards.[6]
Since 5 January 2013, every
BBC Local Radio station across England and the Channel Islands broadcasts a BBC Music Introducing programme at 8pm on Saturday evenings. It also broadcasts on
BBC Radio Wales on Saturdays,
BBC Radio Scotland on Fridays and
BBC Radio Ulster in Northern Ireland on Monday nights. There are more than 190,000 registered artists and nearly 1 million (950,000+) tracks uploaded to the BBC Music Introducing website, who get played weekly across Introducing shows on BBC radio, with each station reflecting its local music scene around the country. Most weeks, the platform receives in excess of 5,000 tracks with some peaking at 16,000 - representing 1073 hours of new music being sent into the BBC.[7]
The BBC broadcasts 32 local shows across their network each week, with plans to cut them down to 20 regional shows - up from the original 10, confirmed in February 2023.[8]
Successes
The earliest success stories include Florence and The Machine, who Introducing took to Texas in 2008 to play at SXSW festival,[9] and Ed Sheeran who played Glastonbury Festival for the first time in 2011 on the BBC Introducing stage.[10][11]
Introducing has also helped push the careers of the likes of Marina and The Diamonds, Ellie Goulding, The 1975, Chip/Chipmunk, Låpsley, JME & Skepta, Rizzle Kicks, Stornoway, Alt-J, TCTS, Wretch 32, Ward Thomas, Gabrielle Aplin, Years & Years, Circa Waves, Saint Raymond, Don Broco, AlunaGeorge, Becky Hill, Devlin, The Ting Tings, Will Heard, Moko, KStewart, The Sherlocks, London Grammar, Oh Wonder, Fickle Friends, The Amazons, The Shires, Aquilo, Nothing But Thieves, Jacob Collier, Jerry Williams, Matt Maltese, Jordan Max, IDER, Glass Animals and Pulled Apart By Horses.
In March 2022, BBC Introducing on Asian Network with Jasmine Takhar was nominated for best radio show at the Music Week Awards.
The platform
Radio network coverage
The 32 Introducing shows on BBC local radio are a hub to showcase the wealth of new music being discovered across the locality. From here, artists are forwarded to BBC DJs to play on national radio, and they can also be put forward to play festival stages by their local show. Every week the BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra music teams feature an Introducing artist on their playlists. Previous Introducing artists of the week have included Tom Grennan, The Sherlocks, The Big Moon, Mahalia,
Willie J Healey, Isaac Gracie, Declan McKenna, Pale Waves, Shy Luv, Mullally, Isaiah Dreads and Alicai Harley.
Upload tool
In February 2009, an upload tool (now internally referred to as Peel, named after the late
John Peel) was launched on the BBC Music Introducing website to allow users to upload their music direct to Introducing producers and presenters. Artists or bands enter their
postcode at the point of registering and notifications about any songs they upload are sent to BBC staff working on their nearest Introducing radio show, which can then be forwarded to the likes of BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1Xtra or BBC Asian Network.
All material submitted to the BBC Music Introducing brand via the upload tool is classified by the BBC as
User Generated Content (UGC),[13] and they encourage[14] users to read the Corporation's Terms of Use[15] in relation to UGC before uploading material.
In 2017 BBC Music Introducing was present at
Creamfields and the
Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), focusing solely on DJs and electronic acts for the first time.
Previous acts to have played the Introducing stages include Jack Garratt, Ed Sheeran, George Ezra, Bombay Bicycle Club, Little Simz, Blossoms, Loyle Carner, Slaves, Rosie Lowe, Glass Animals, Soak, Viola Beach, Catfish and the Bottlemen, James Bay, Royal Blood and CHVRCHES.
Organised between 2014 and 2017, the
BBC Music Awards celebrated the best in British music. Since the inaugural awards ceremony, the BBC Music Introducing Artist of the Year award has been presented to an artist who has made a significant impact with the aid of BBC Music Introducing. The award has continued following the end of the music awards.
On Wednesday 4 October 2017, BBC Music Introducing celebrated its tenth birthday by holding a four-hour gig at the O2 Academy Brixton which was live on BBC Radio 1 and hosted by
Annie Mac and
Huw Stephens. Introducing alumni including
George Ezra, Nao,
Everything Everything,
The Big Moon,
Declan McKenna,
Slaves,
Rae Morris,
Blossoms and
Jake Bugg performed at the live showcase. South London grime artist
Yizzy also performed on the night, and was the winner of Introducing's Future Fund – an artist grant launched in partnership with
PRS for Music Foundation.
On Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 October, BBC Music Introducing hosted Amplify – a mass-scale conference composed of masterclasses, workshops and performances at
ExCeL London.[26] It featured talks from key figures in the music industry including Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq, Jamie Cullum, Twin B, Annie Mac, DJ Target and Jo Whiley. The event subsequently continued in 2018 named 'BBC Introducing Live' taking place at
Tobacco Dock in London.[27][28]
Programmes and presenters
National programmes
BBC Introducing on Radio 1 Dance (presented by Jaguar)[29]
BBC Introducing on Radio 1 (presented by Gemma Bradley)[30]
The BBC Introducing Mixtape (presented by Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6 Music)[31]
BBC Introducing on the Asian Network with Jasmine Takhar[32]