Hello, it's Tom Robinson with another episode of the BBC Introducing Mixtape from 6 Music - 60 minutes of music from under the mainstream radar, uploaded by independent UK artists direct to their local & regional BBC Introducing shows. This week's episode includes four fine artists supported by ATL Introducing in Northern Ireland:
THE WOOD BURNING SAVAGES, ALISON EALES, ELLiSD, ELLIE DIXON, BRODIE MILNER, ECKOES, LEO SANDERSON, FERNA, ROE, LUCY BELL, NEON PLASTIX, LILAC2001, LAWRENCE TAYLOR, IONA ZAJAC, THE SILVER BARS, GOOD HABITS, and BURD ELLEN
This is the episode released on Monday 27 February 2023 and available via BBC Sounds for the next 30 days until Wednesday 29 March 2023. After the show drops you can also download & keep the audio permanently using any podcast app, or direct from our podcast page.
With warm thanks to the teams at
BBC Introducing in Beds, Herts and Bucks with Honor Morrison
BBC Introducing in Cumbria with Emma Linton
BBC Introducing in Cambridgeshire with Rebecca May
BBC Introducing in Hereford & Worcester with Andrew Marston
BBC Introducing on Humberside with Alan Raw
BBC Introducing in Manchester with DJ Roesh
BBC Introducing in Sheffield with Christian Carlisle
BBC Introducing in Scotland
BBC Introducing: Solent with Steph Nieuwenhuys
BBC Introducing: Sussex & Surrey with Melita Dennett
BBC Introducing in West Yorkshire with Emily Pilbeam
And especially this week the folks at
ATL Introducing in Northern Ireland with Gemma Bradley
for finding / supporting / forwarding tunes for today's show:
THE WOOD BURNING SAVAGES - Hand To Mouth
https://www.thewoodburningsavages.com
ALISON EALES - Ever Forward
https://fikarecordings.com/artists/alison-eales
ELLiSD - Straitjacket Blues
https://linktr.ee/ellisdband
GOOD HABITS - I Will Still Be Here
https://linktr.ee/goodhabitsband
BRODIE MILNER - Hedonist
https://linktr.ee/brodiemilnermusic
ECKOES - Missing You
http://iameckoes.com
LEO SANDERSON - Bass In The Walk
https://linktr.ee/leosanderson
FERNA ft JOSHUA BURNSIDE - Morning After
https://linktr.ee/fernasongs
ROE - My Greatest Fear
https://www.musicglue.com/roe
LUCY BELL - Love Me The Most
https://lucybellmusic.co.uk
NEON PLASTIX - Who Said
https://www.facebook.com/neonplastix
LILAC2001 - Half Day
https://soundcloud.com/lilac2001
LAWRENCE TAYLOR - In & Out
https://www.facebook.com/LawrenceTaylorMusic
ELLIE DIXON - Big Lizard Energy
https://www.elliedixonmusic.com
THE SILVER BARS - The Young Lieutenant
https://linktr.ee/thesilverbars
IONA ZAJAC - Rubbish Jubilee
https://ffm.bio/ionazajac
BURD ELLEN - The Fool
https://linktr.ee/burdellen
PS FOR ARTISTS:
What happens next? 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. The trouble is that radio can accellerate a career that's already got momentum - but it can't kickstart a career from scratch.
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 in the hope of getting more airplay is an expensive gamble - and only worth considering when there's already a buzz about your latest song and a growing audience for your music. But early on in their career, most emerging artists get MUCH better results themselves than by hiring a plugger. 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).
Once an artist's career does start building momentumn - with views, plays and comments growing measurably each week - that's when an expertly run radio campaign can be a great way of putting a foot on the accelerator. Once you do choose to go down that route, the next problem is how to find a trustworthy promo company? One possibility might be to 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.
AND FINALLY...
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
