How to get your music on UK radio: BBC Introducing and after

Start with BBC Introducing, because it's free and it's local

The BBC runs a network of regional new-music shows, and any UK artist can upload unreleased or released tracks through its uploader for the show covering where they live. The local team listens. If they like it, they play it, and the best of those tracks get passed up to the national shows. It costs nothing, and it's the only radio route where being from a smaller place is an advantage rather than a problem.

What we've seen, with the caveat it deserves. When members of our community have told us how their upload went, the plays we've heard about have mostly been outside London. That isn't a finding, because artists post their wins far more often than their misses, and London's show is the most crowded in the country. But if you're outside London, your local show is listening for you, and your odds are real.

Three things get an upload played, in our experience. The track is finished and mastered. The profile around it is finished too: a bio with one line that says who you are, a photo, a release date. And it's uploaded four to five weeks before release, so the team has time to listen and schedule.

The six-week order

This is the press and radio part of the release countdown we run with every artist. It's general practice, not a promise.

Six weeks out: find the story. One line a presenter can read out in a breath. The bio guide has the exercise. Check every fact in it.

Four to five weeks out: local and niche first, then the upload. Pitch the shows most likely to say yes before anyone else: your local BBC show, the community station in your town, the student station if there's a university, and the specialist show for your genre on a national station. One email per show, one at a time, a day apart. Then the BBC Introducing upload, with the same one-line story in the notes.

Release week: the weekly listening posts. A few long-running online listening posts take submissions in a short window early in the week and close when they're full. Send the morning the window opens. A day late means next week.

One to two weeks after: follow up once. One message, two lines, to anyone who didn't reply. Then a thank-you to everyone who played or wrote about it. The thank-you is the start of the next pitch.

The month after: use the play. Put it in the short version of your bio. Put it in the festival form. Put it in the funding application that asks for signs of an audience. Email the list.

Who to send to, and what to send

Four kinds of show will actually play an unsigned artist, in this order of likelihood: the BBC regional show for your postcode, community radio stations in your city and the next one over, student radio, and specialist genre shows on national and online stations. Commercial daytime radio isn't on the list and won't be until you're on it for other reasons.

The email is short because presenters read on their phones between links.

• Subject line: your name, the track, the release date, your city.
• Line one: the one-line story.
• Line two: the release date and where you're playing next.
• A private streaming link and a download link. No attachments.
• Your name. No "please consider", no "I'd be honoured", no feedback request.

One ask per email. If you want a play, ask for a play. If you want a session, that's a different email in a different month.

What a play is worth, and how to make it worth more

The play itself reaches whoever was listening. What you do the same day decides whether any of them find you.

Before the show airs, every profile you have carries your name spelled the way the presenter will say it, the track, and your sign-up link at the top. A listener who hears you in the car searches your name an hour later; they land on a profile, and the profile has to catch them.

Tell your list the show and the time before it airs, and send the clip after. Ask the people who shared your last track to share this. A play with nobody told is a play wasted.

Then look at your dashboard the next morning. If one city moved, that city is where you book the next room. The first 1,000 listeners guide has the fortnight that follows.

Do you need a radio plugger?

Not at this stage. A plugger sells relationships with daytime and national specialist shows, and those shows don't play artists who haven't built the first three stages yet. The money is better spent finishing the master. The one time it makes sense is the same as for any paid promotion: a release eight weeks out, a story, a list of a hundred or more, and the free routes above already done once. The paid promotion guide has the decision rule and the prices.

The mistakes we see every month

• Uploading a track that isn't mastered, because the deadline felt close.
• Uploading on release day. The show you wanted was scheduled a month ago.
• Sending the same email to twenty shows in one afternoon. They can tell.
• Asking for feedback. Presenters play tracks; they don't mark them.
• Chasing twice. Once, after a fortnight, then move on.
• Not telling the list. The play reaches strangers; the list is who turns it into something.
• Only trying the one crowded London show when a specialist or community show two postcodes over would have said yes.

Where this fits

This is the "support" stage of artist development: a radio play is a credit and a reason to email, and it works when the release was planned back from a date. The release checklist has radio as one of its 18 rows and the countdown guide has the week it belongs in. The getting-heard guide covers the other routes. If you want to compare notes with artists who've been played on their local show, that's what our community sessions are for.

• Artist development: what it is, what it costs, and how to tell it's workingthe hub
• How to get your music heard as an independent artist
• Plan your release back from the date
• The UK independent release checklist (2026)
• Your song is getting streams: what to do in the next 14 days
• How to write a musician bio: start with your fans' words
• Should you pay for music promotion? A decision rule
• The HyperTribe communityartists at your stage, in your city
• Press release builderfree tool
• Release countdown calculatorfree tool

Questions artists ask