When choosing new tunes to play on the radio, fancy packaging or press releases don’t come into it: the only thing that counts is what comes out of the speakers. However it takes five times longer to unpack, load, play & eject a CD than it does to listen to the same track online. So if there’s something you really want me to hear, please don’t send me another CD to add to the pile.
The best way to get a tune to my ears is to via the Send Us A Track link right here on this blog, any Monday to Thursday. Several members of the team, including me, will check it out. We get more than 100 tracks every week, so we can’t give individual feedback.
But if any of us fall in love with your tune, we’ll publish it on our Listening Post here that weekend so you can get honest feedback from our music-loving readers. And if I personally adore it, it’ll get shortlisted for my BBC Introducing Mixtape on 6 Music – so long as it’s also been sent to bbc.co.uk/introducing/uploader.
Soundtrack to this video: Les Waters “Boiled Eggs and Nuts” and Candy Panic Attack “Operator”.
UPDATED NOV 2012
Many leading DJs – such as Steve Lamacq – do still prefer to get new music on a physical disc. But as you can see above, it takes so long to work through this many CDs every week that some of them are always bound to slip between the cracks and never get heard.
Two key bits of advice from our Sending CDs to Radio page: it’s VITAL to put a sticker with all the key info – plus recommended tracks if its an album – on the outside of the sleeve: all the top radio pluggers do this, without exception. And sending your CD in a jewel case makes it bulkier and heavier: if a radio producer or DJ is picking discs from the pile to take home & listen to, they’ll probably choose the ones with the least packaging…
The bigger shows at Radio 1 and 6 Music have enough staff to be able to wade through the mountain of promo CDs they get sent. But in my own case that’s no longer possible: like most of the BBC, 6 Music has had to make major budget cuts and I’m now doing fewer shows each week, with less staff working on them. My only way of keeping up with the tidal wave of incoming music is to funnel everything through our dropbox here at FOTN.
The brilliant Team Freshnet moderators help me sift through everything, and even if a gem escapes my attention, the chances are that one of the others will pick up on it. So we can guarantee that every single track that comes in gets heard and considered by several people, and if I adore it, I play it. Simple as that.
Believe what Tom says! He diligently worked his way through to our submission, listened, and played it more than a few times on the show. Thanks for having open ears and open mind, Tom.
Mike from Portslade
x
And DON’T send your submission on a cassette…
Haha no, quite right Marco. I know one band in Oxford who are actually threatening to release on wax cylinder next year.
Woodman Stone’s first album was released as a memory; quickly forgotten, it sank without trace
;-)
(seriously, wax cylinder?)
What about sending my harddisk (terrabytes of emotions up there, without sweat!)