Amazing Radio: How to Submit and Use a Play | TAP
Turning Amazing Radio plays into press
By TAP Editorial Team
Quick answer
You submit to Amazing Radio by uploading your track to Amazing Tunes, the station's own platform, where its team listens and picks what goes on air. There is no fee and no paid placement. A play is an editorial decision by people who only cover new and independent music, which is why it carries weight with writers, playlist curators and promoters when you tell them about it.
Amazing Radio is one of the few national outlets that takes music straight from artists, listens to all of it, and plays new records on merit. That makes a play there worth more than the audience figure suggests, because everyone in the room knows the station picked the track rather than being sold it. This page covers how to submit, when to submit, and how to turn a play into the conversations that come next with press, curators, promoters and the stations above it.
How to Get Your Track to Amazing Radio
Submissions go through Amazing Tunes, the station's own upload platform. You create an artist profile, upload the track with its artwork and metadata, and the station's team works through what comes in. There is no fee to upload and no paid placement anywhere in the process, which is the whole point of the station and the reason a play there means something. Get the practical things right, because they are the ones that lose tracks. Upload a finished master rather than a rough mix. Fill in the genre and the release date accurately, since the team schedules around release weeks. Write the short biography as if the reader has never heard of you, because they have not. Upload three to four weeks before release so there is time for the track to be heard and placed in a show, and so a play can land in the week when everything else you have planned is also happening.
Tip: Upload the master, not the demo, and set the release date correctly. The station schedules around release weeks, and a wrong date is the easiest way to have a good track played at the wrong moment.
Why an Amazing Radio Play Carries Weight
The station receives thousands of uploads and plays a small fraction of them, and the people who matter to you know that. Writers, playlist curators and promoters see a great deal of music that arrived somewhere by paying, and they have learned to discount it. An Amazing Radio play is a decision made by producers whose whole job is new and independent music, with nothing bought and nothing owed. That is why the phrasing matters when you talk about it. Played on Amazing Radio reads differently from submitted to a playlist service, and the difference is legible to anyone in the industry within a second. It also puts you in specific company: an outlet that has played early records by artists who went on to considerably bigger things, which is exactly the frame a writer covering emerging music is working in.
Tip: Put the Amazing Radio play in the credibility line of your press kit, next to any live dates worth naming. For an independent release it does the same job as a good support slot.
When to Submit So the Play Lands With Everything Else
A play that arrives on its own gets used once and forgotten. A play that arrives in the same fortnight as your press approach, your playlist pitching and your gig announcement gets used four times, because each conversation can point at it. Work backwards from the release. Upload to Amazing Tunes three to four weeks ahead. That gives the station time to decide while you are still in early conversations with writers and curators, and it means that when a play is confirmed you have people to tell. The moment it airs, go back to everyone you have already spoken to. New radio support is a legitimate reason to reopen a conversation that had gone quiet, and it converts soft interest into coverage more often than any follow-up you could write without it.
Tip: Build one calendar with the upload date, the expected decision window, your press approaches and your announcement on it. The play is worth several times more inside that fortnight than outside it.
Using the Play When You Approach Press
Writers covering new music need a reason a story exists this week rather than any other week, and radio support is one of the few reasons that is checkable. It says someone with judgement heard the record and decided in your favour, which is a different claim from anything you can make about yourself. Frame it as movement rather than as an achievement. An artist building support across independent radio ahead of a release is a story. An artist who got played on the radio is a fact with nowhere to go. If you have had several plays across releases, that pattern is stronger still, because it shows a station coming back to you rather than trying you once. Publications that cover emerging artists already know the station, so you do not have to explain it, and the ones that do not know it will not be moved by a paragraph explaining why they should be.
Tip: Lead your press note with the trajectory and put the radio support in the second line as evidence. Writers want a direction of travel, and the play is what proves the direction is real.
Using the Play When You Approach Playlist Curators
Independent curators, bloggers and tastemakers are looking for a reason to trust a track before they spend a slot on it. Prior editorial support from a station that only plays new music is one of the strongest signals available to them, because it means someone already filtered on their behalf. Use it as supporting evidence rather than as the headline. The song still has to fit the playlist, and no amount of radio support rescues a track that does not. Naming the specific show or slot where you were played is worth doing, since it tells a curator which audience responded to the record first, and that is more useful to them than the station name on its own. This works best with playlists serving defined communities, indie, alternative and electronic among them, where the listener overlap with the station is real rather than assumed.
Tip: Name the show and the date, not just the station. It shows you paid attention to your own campaign, and it tells the curator which listeners the track already reached.
Amazing Radio UK and Amazing Radio US Are Separate
The two operations run independently, with separate teams and separate audiences, and a play on one does not produce a play on the other. Submit to both. Being played in both territories is not the same claim twice, it is reach in two markets, and it changes what you can say in each one. List them separately in your materials rather than folding them into one line about multiple territories. Added to Amazing Radio UK and added to Amazing Radio US read as two decisions, which is what they are. For UK writers, American radio support says the record travelled. For American writers, UK support says it cleared a competitive market first. If you have any intention of playing shows on either side of the Atlantic, that pair of lines does more work in a booking conversation than either would alone.
Tip: If you get US play, approach US press with the UK support as backing, and the other way round. The split gives you two stories rather than one repeated.
Turning a Play Into Gig and Booking Conversations
Promoters and bookers are trying to answer one question about an artist they do not know: will anyone come. Radio support does not answer it outright, but it is evidence that your music has reached people outside your own following, which is more than most approaches offer them. Go to promoters in the week the track airs, while the play is current. Put the radio support and your availability in the same short message, so it reads as one moment rather than as two separate asks. If you are announcing a run of dates, having the play confirmed beforehand makes the announcement stronger, and gives local press a reason to pick it up. For a first headline show, this is often the difference between a promoter offering a support slot and offering you the night.
Tip: Write to promoters in the week the track airs, and put the radio support and your available dates in the same short message. Two separate asks get read as two requests; one gets read as a moment.
What One Play Can and Cannot Do
A single play will not sell out a room or change your streaming numbers, and any account of it that suggests otherwise will not survive contact with reality. What it does is unlock several conversations at once, each of which reads the same fact differently. A writer sees a story angle. A curator sees a filter someone else already applied. A promoter sees evidence of reach. So use it in four places rather than four times in one place, and give each one the version that suits them. Then watch which of those conversations actually moved, and put more into that channel next release. For most independent artists the useful discovery is that one of the four does nearly all the work, and knowing which one is worth more than the play itself.
Key takeaways
- Submissions go through Amazing Tunes, the station's own upload platform. There is no fee and no paid placement, which is exactly why a play there is worth something.
- Upload three to four weeks before release so a play can land in the same fortnight as your press approaches, playlist pitching and any announcement.
- The value of a play is that someone with no stake in your record chose it. Say played on Amazing Radio precisely, and name the show and date when you can.
- The UK and US operations decide separately. Submit to both and list them as two lines, because two territories is a different claim from one station mentioned twice.
- One play unlocks four different conversations: press, curators, promoters and your own audience. Give each one the version that suits them, then track which one actually moved.
Pro tips
1. Upload a finished master with an accurate release date and a biography written for someone who has never heard of you. Most tracks that miss out lose on the practical details rather than the music.
2. Put the upload date, the decision window, your press approaches and your announcement on one calendar. A play is worth several times more inside that fortnight than sitting on its own.
3. The day the track airs, go back to every writer, curator and promoter you have already spoken to. New radio support is a legitimate reason to reopen a conversation that had gone quiet.
4. Name the specific show and date in every mention. It proves you followed your own campaign and it tells the reader which audience heard the record first.
5. Submit to Amazing Radio US separately rather than assuming a UK play carries across. Two territories gives you two press stories in two markets, and it costs one more upload.
Frequently asked questions
How do I submit music to Amazing Radio?
Upload it to Amazing Tunes, the station's own platform. Create an artist profile, add the finished master with artwork, genre and an accurate release date, and the station's team listens to what comes in. There is no submission fee and no paid placement. Upload three to four weeks before release so there is time for the track to be heard and scheduled.
How quickly should I expect press interest after a play?
Within a week or two, but only if you are actively telling people. Airplay on its own produces nothing. The response comes from you going back to writers who cover emerging and independent music in the days after it airs, while the play is current and there is still something to attach it to.
Does a play guarantee playlist adds on Spotify or Apple Music?
No. Radio and streaming playlists are decided by different people on different grounds. What the play does is give a curator a reason to trust the track before they listen, which raises your odds rather than settling them. Use it as supporting evidence in the pitch, never as the headline, because the song still has to fit the playlist.
Should I mention the play to a promoter I have already contacted?
Yes, and it is one of the better reasons to send a second message. Something along the lines of since we last spoke the track has had national radio support, and here is when I am free, gives a promoter a fresh reason to look at a request they had parked. Keep it to two lines and include your dates.
Is it worth submitting to Amazing Radio US as well as the UK station?
Yes, and submit separately rather than waiting for one to lead to the other. They are run by different teams for different audiences and neither decision depends on the other. Support in both territories reads as international reach, which is a real claim you can make to press and promoters on either side.
From the field
Proof points
- Named contact reply rate vs studio@: 5x higher (Liberty Music PR campaign data, 2024-2026)
- Best UK send window: Tue/Wed 09:00-10:00 UK (Across 60+ campaigns)
- Optimal follow-up cadence: +7 days from initial pitch (Liberty internal data)
- Reply visibility blind spot: Stations add to rotation without replying (WARM monitoring vs email reply rate)
What actually happened
Eyes Glued, BBC Radio 6 Music: 153 plays across 6 weeks, accelerating in week 4. Track-led pitch with a single playable line. (March 2025)
Amazing Radio is the most plugger-friendly station I have worked with. They reply, they tell you why, and they give independent acts space the BBC won't. The trade-off is reach. I treat Amazing as the early-stage validation step, the place where the campaign learns the pitch before it goes to bigger stations. That sequencing matters more than people think.
Chris Schofield, Radio plugger, Liberty Music PR
Related resources
Further reading
- TAP Blog — In-depth guides, comparisons and advice for independent artists running their own promotion.
- UK Music — The voice of the UK music industry, representing labels, publishers, and collecting societies.
- Music Week — Industry news, charts, and analysis for music professionals.
- The Music Network — Global music business intelligence and networking.
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