How to Get Your Music Played on BBC 1Xtra | TAP

1Xtra's evening schedule is built around specialist shows, and they are not interchangeable. A dancehall record and a drill record belong in different hours of the week. Two full listens tells you the tempo the show sits at, whether it plays unsigned records at all, and whether your track would sound like it belongs. Check the current schedule at bbc.co.uk/sounds/schedules/bbc_1xtra, because presenters and slots move.

A play in a specialist show, a place on the station playlist and a session or interview are three different asks with three different routes. Most artists sending their first email want the first one. Ask for that, on its own, and let the rest follow if it follows.

Broadcast is unforgiving about mixes. If the low end is muddy or the vocal sits behind the beat on a phone speaker, that is what a producer hears first and it is the reason a lot of good records get passed over. Fix it before you send rather than after you are turned down.

If your record has swearing in it, prepare a radio edit yourself. Do not leave it to someone else to decide whether it is worth the trouble. Keep the edit musical rather than gapped, and name the file so nobody has to guess which version they are holding.

BBC Introducing is the BBC's route for unsigned and under-the-radar UK artists, and it feeds Radio 1, 1Xtra, Asian Network and the rest of the network. Uploads go through bbc.co.uk/introducing/uploader. There is a dedicated BBC Introducing on 1Xtra slot in the schedule, and tracks that land there get heard by people who also work on the daytime station.

Introducing runs through local BBC shows across England, plus network shows in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and those shows pass records they rate up to the national stations. A play on your local show is a real credit and it is a far shorter distance to travel than a cold national ask.

Older write-ups about 1Xtra still point artists at Xtra Talent. That was a residency series that gave new DJs and presenters their own shows, mostly between 2007 and 2014, and it was never a music submission scheme. There is no open call under that name on the station now. Send music through BBC Introducing and to the specialist shows instead.

Nobody at the BBC sells airplay and anyone offering to place you on a BBC station for a fee is selling you nothing. If you have paid for radio promotion before, you paid for someone's time and relationships, not for a guaranteed play.

A 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV is the safe floor and higher is fine. Keep the file name in the form Artist - Track Title, and put the artist name, track title and ISRC into the file's metadata if you have them. A file called final_master_v7.wav is a small signal that says a lot.

Who made it, what it sounds like, and the one fact that makes it worth playing this month. Name the producer if the producer is part of the story. Skip the words that appear in every other email: fresh, unique, inspired by life.

Radio plans in weeks. Say the date plainly at the top of the email. If the record is already out, say that too, because it changes which shows can still use it.

If a producer comes back at four in the afternoon asking whether you can be at a studio the following morning, the answer needs to arrive the same day. Use one address, put it in the signature, and keep an eye on it for the whole campaign.

That is enough time for a record to be listened to, discussed and scheduled without being so early that it is forgotten. If you can only give two weeks, send anyway and say so, but expect the specialist shows rather than anything planned in advance.

One short follow-up, seven days after the first email, in the same thread. Add something if you can: a play elsewhere, a video going up, a date confirmed. If that gets nothing, let it go and come back with the next record.

A session means playing the record properly in a room with a clock running. If that means a second musician, a stripped arrangement or a backing track, work it out before you accept rather than in the corridor. A rough session does more harm than no session.

Where the record came from, what changed while you were making it, who else is in it. Interviews go badly when the only answer available is a number. Think about it on the way in, not on air.

Artwork, a bio line, spelling of every name, social handles. The people putting the segment out are working to a deadline you cannot see. Being the artist whose files arrive first is worth more than it sounds.

Schedules move for news and for guests dropping out. If you are hard to reach on the morning of a recording, the slot goes to somebody who is not.

Community radio, a station in your city, DJs who already play you, the blogs and channels that cover your scene. National radio notices a record that is already moving. Sitting still while you wait for one reply is the most common way a release week gets wasted.

Stations add records to rotation without replying to anybody. That is normal and it is the single most common reason artists think a campaign failed when it did not. Check the station's recently played listing and any airplay reporting you have access to.

Post it, tell the people who supported you earlier, add it to the next email you write. A play is only current for a few days. Three weeks later it is a line in a bio.