How to Track BBC 1Xtra Plays for Your Release | TAP
Tracking 1Xtra plays and campaign reporting
By TAP Editorial Team
Quick answer
You can check BBC Radio 1Xtra plays yourself for nothing. The station publishes its playlist each week at bbc.co.uk/1xtra/playlist with A, B and C lists and a BBC Introducing entry, and the station page on BBC Sounds shows recently played tracks. Stations add records without replying to anybody, so check those before you decide from your inbox that a release did nothing.
Radio rarely tells you what it has done with your record. Stations add tracks without replying to anybody, which is the single most common reason an artist decides a release failed when it did not. These are the templates for finding out where you actually stand on BBC Radio 1Xtra: what to check, where to check it, and what to write down so the next release starts from something better than memory. 1Xtra publishes its playlist every week and lists what it has just played, so more of this is checkable than most artists realise.
The weekly check
A ten-minute routine, once a week, for the six weeks around a release, so you find out what happened without refreshing your inbox
WEEK OF: [DATE] Record: [TRACK] / [ARTIST] 1. 1Xtra playlist, bbc.co.uk/1xtra/playlist Listed this week: [NO / A LIST / B LIST / C LIST / BBC INTRODUCING] Change since last week: [NEW / SAME / DROPPED OFF] 2. Recently played, on the station page in BBC Sounds Spotted: [YES / NO] Date and time if yes: [ ] 3. Any airplay monitoring you have access to Plays logged this week: [NUMBER] Stations: [ ] 4. Your own numbers, on the days around any play Anything unusual: [YES / NO] What: [ ] 5. Messages and mentions Anyone got in touch off the back of it: [ ] Anything to act on this week: [ ]
Do this on the same day each week so it becomes a habit rather than a decision. Ten minutes is the right amount of time. If you find yourself doing it daily you have turned a check into a worry, and the answer will not change faster than the schedule does.
Play log
One line per confirmed play, so that by the end of a campaign you have evidence rather than an impression
[DATE] [TIME] [STATION] [SHOW] [PRESENTER] How you know: [heard it / recently played listing / monitoring / someone told you] Context: [in rotation / played and talked about / session / interview] What you did about it: [posted it / thanked them / nothing yet] [DATE] [TIME] [STATION] [SHOW] [PRESENTER] [repeat] RUNNING TOTAL: [NUMBER] plays across [NUMBER] stations First play: [DATE] Most recent: [DATE]
Write the row the day it happens, because you will not remember the show name in three weeks. The How you know column matters more than it looks: a play you heard yourself and a play someone thinks they heard are different kinds of evidence, and only one of them belongs in an email later.
Where you sent it
The record of who you contacted and when, so a follow-up is a decision rather than a guess, and so the next release does not start from nothing
Record: [TRACK] Release date: [DATE] | Station | Show | Named person | Sent | Followed up | Reply | Played | | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [DATE] | [DATE or -] | [yes/no/what] | [yes/no] | Rules I am keeping to: - One show per station, not three - Four to six weeks before release - One follow-up, seven days after, same thread - No second follow-up Still to send: [ ] Due a follow-up this week: [ ]
This is the single most useful file you will own by your third release. A named person replies about five times as often as a general studio address in our own campaign data, so the Named person column is the one that changes results. If it is empty for a station, that is the next ten minutes of work.
Where you stand, at four weeks
A short honest read at the four-week mark, so you can decide what the rest of the campaign is for instead of drifting through it
Record: [TRACK] Four weeks from: [RELEASE DATE] WHAT HAPPENED Plays logged: [NUMBER] Stations: [NUMBER] On the 1Xtra playlist at any point: [YES / NO] Specialist show support: [WHO] Anything that came from a person rather than a system: [ ] WHAT DID NOT Shows that never replied: [ ] Things I meant to do and did not: [ ] HONEST READ Is this record still moving, or has it settled: [ ] Is there anything true I could put in an email that I could not have said at release: [ ] DECISION [ Keep pushing, and specifically: ] [ Or: stop here, and put the effort into the next record ]
Four weeks is early enough to change something and late enough to know. Most of the time the honest answer is that the record has settled, and reaching that conclusion quickly is worth more than another fortnight of hopeful emails. Deciding to stop is a result, not a failure.
What this release taught me
The debrief you write once, at the end, and read again at the start of the next campaign
Record: [TRACK] Campaign: [START] to [END] WHAT I EXPECTED: [ ] WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED: [ ] WORKED - [ ] - [ ] DID NOT WORK - [ ] - [ ] PEOPLE WORTH KEEPING Name, show, station, what they said, how they like to be contacted: - [ ] WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY, IN ORDER 1. [ ] 2. [ ] 3. [ ] WHAT THE NEXT RECORD NEEDS THAT THIS ONE DID NOT HAVE: [ ]
Write it within a week of the campaign ending, while you still remember the parts that annoyed you. The People worth keeping section is the one that compounds. Everything else in this template is about a record that is finished, but that list is the start of the next one.
Message to someone who supported it
The short note that turns a single play into a relationship, sent the same week it happened
Subject: thanks for the [TRACK] play Hi [NAME], Heard you played [TRACK] on [DAY]. Thank you, that meant a lot. [One sentence of something real: what happened after, where the record is going next, or nothing at all if there is nothing.] Next one is [DATE or 'early next year'] and I will send it over when it is ready. [YOUR NAME]
Send it in the week it happened, not a month later. Keep it to four lines and do not attach anything or ask for anything. The whole point is that it is the one email in their inbox that is not a request, and that is exactly why it gets remembered when the next record turns up.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out whether 1Xtra actually played my record?
Three places, all free. The station publishes its playlist each week at bbc.co.uk/1xtra/playlist, with A, B and C lists and a BBC Introducing entry. The 1Xtra station page on BBC Sounds shows recently played tracks. And if you have access to any airplay monitoring, that will pick up plays neither of those catches. Do not rely on a reply, because most plays never come with one.
Nobody replied to any of my emails. Did the campaign fail?
Not necessarily, and this is the thing artists get wrong most often. Stations add records to rotation without replying to anybody, so silence is not the same as a no. Check the playlist and the recently played listing before you draw a conclusion, and keep the play log going for a few weeks past release. A campaign that looked dead in the inbox has often done something you did not know about.
Is it worth paying for airplay monitoring?
For most independent artists on a single release, no. The free checks cover the national stations, which is where you are most likely to be looking. Monitoring earns its keep when you are running several records a year across a lot of stations and the time spent checking by hand starts to outweigh the cost. Until then, put the money into the record.
What should I do the day I find out about a play?
Post it while it is current, which means that day or the next. Message the presenter or producer to say thanks, briefly, with no ask attached. Tell the people who supported the record earlier. Then write the row in your play log. A play stays current for about a week and is worth a fraction of that a month later.
How long should I keep tracking a release?
Six weeks past release for the weekly check, then stop. Records do occasionally come back around, but after six weeks you are watching rather than working, and the effort belongs to the next record. Keep the play log and the contact list permanently, because those are what make the next campaign shorter.
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)
1Xtra is daytime-driven and specialist-led at night. The names matter more than the station. I pitch the specialist team first, lead with a clean wav and a tight bio, and follow the specialist-to-daytime handover when it comes. UK rap and grime on 1Xtra responds to direct, unfussy emails. The verbose press release is read by no one.
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.
Get your free release plan in 60 seconds
Tell TAP your track and release date. It builds your 4-week timeline, drafts personalised outreach for your contacts, and tracks replies in one place. First release is free, no card required.