How to Position Your Genre for BBC 6 Music | TAP
Genre positioning for 6 Music
By TAP Editorial Team
Quick answer
6 Music does not sort submissions by genre, so a genre tag on its own gives a reader nothing to act on. Describe the record instead: where it was made, who played on it, and the one thing about it that is unusual. If it sits between two styles, say in a sentence how they meet and what that produces.
6 Music will play a krautrock reissue, a Gambian kora record and a piece of lo-fi hip-hop within the same afternoon, which is either liberating or paralysing depending on how you write your emails. If your music does not sit neatly in one bin, this is the station most likely to be glad of that. What it will not do is work out what your record is on your behalf. This guide covers how to describe a record to 6 Music so that a person can hear it before they have pressed play.
6 Music Does Not Sort by Genre, and That Is the Point
Look at any weekday on the schedule and the range inside a single show is the whole proposition. A record does not get played because it belongs to a category, it gets played because somebody making that programme wanted to hear it on their show. That changes what your email is for. You are not filing your record under a heading so that it reaches the right department. You are giving one person a reason to be curious, which means the useful sentence is the one that describes what the record actually does rather than which shelf it would sit on in a shop.
Say What the Record Is, Not What Bin It Goes In
Compare two openings. The first says post-punk with electronic elements. The second says two of us, one drum machine that keeps drifting out of time, recorded in a village hall in November. The second one is a record; the first one is a tag. You do not need to be clever about this and you should not reach for adjectives. Say where it was made, who made it, what is playing, and the one thing about it that is unusual. If nothing about it is unusual, that is worth knowing before you send it anywhere.
The Schedule Is the Map
6 Music's shows are not interchangeable, and the schedule tells you what each one is for. Some carry new music as their whole purpose, some are built around a presenter's own history, and some are explicitly about one area: experimental and avant-garde music, funk and soul, global club sounds, culture-crossing selections. Open bbc.co.uk/schedules, pick 6 Music, and read a full week. It takes twenty minutes and it will tell you more about where your record belongs than any amount of advice about the station in general. Do it again before every release, because line-ups change.
Records That Sit Between Two Things
If your record honestly sits between two places, say how they meet rather than listing both. What does the first thing give it, what does the second thing give it, and what does the combination produce that neither would on its own. That is one sentence and it is the most useful sentence in the email. What does not work is describing a record as genre-defying, which tells a listener nothing and is what everybody says. What also does not work is claiming a hybrid you cannot hear in the audio, because the person reading is about to press play and find out.
What the Playlist Page Actually Tells You
6 Music publishes its playlist every week on bbc.co.uk as an A, B and C list, with new entries in bold and arrows marking anything that has moved between them. The page also carries the station's Breaking Artist from its new music strand. Spend ten minutes there before you write anything. It tells you what the station is adding right now, and it gives you accurate reference points to use in an email instead of comparisons drawn from a record collection you assembled fifteen years ago. Screenshot it, because the page is replaced each week rather than archived.
Albums Need a Different Sentence From Singles
A single needs one thing that catches. An album needs a reason to exist as a whole, and that is what an album email should lead with: what holds it together, what you were trying to do, why these songs are in this order. It is fine for that to be plain. Ten songs written after moving back to a town you left at eighteen is a better album sentence than any description of the production. Do not send an album email that is a single email with a track listing pasted underneath, because that is the version everybody sends.
Where Positioning Goes Wrong
Four mistakes cover most of it. Describing a record by what it is not, which is usually a way of avoiding saying what it is. Claiming a scene or a tradition you are adjacent to rather than part of, which is transparent to anybody who knows that scene. Claiming cross-genre appeal in the abstract with nothing specific behind it. And sending a record here because 6 Music was the only station left on your list, which the reader can sense even if they cannot prove it. Being honest about a poor fit costs you one email; being wrong about it costs you the next three.
The One Page That Does the Work
Write a single page you can adapt for every show, containing four things. Three sentences saying what the record is and why it exists. Two or three specific reference points, ideally records the station has actually played recently rather than famous names from decades ago. A line about where this sits in what you have done so far. And, when you send it, one line naming the show and why it is that show. Keep it to about two hundred words. If it takes longer than that, the record is not clear in your own head yet and no amount of writing will hide it.
Key takeaways
- 6 Music does not sort submissions by genre, so a genre tag on its own gives a reader nothing to act on. Describe the record rather than the category.
- The schedule is the map. Individual shows have distinct purposes, some of them stated in the programme title, and reading a full week tells you where your record belongs.
- For hybrid work, say how the elements meet and what that produces, in one sentence. Listing two genres side by side reads as indecision.
- The weekly published playlist gives you accurate, current reference points and shows what the station is adding, which is far more useful than comparisons from memory.
- An album needs a reason to exist as a whole. Lead with what holds it together rather than with the strongest track.
Pro tips
1. Use reference points the station has played in the last month rather than the last decade. The weekly 6 Music playlist page on bbc.co.uk is the fastest source for those, and a current comparison signals that you listen while a famous old one signals that you do not.
2. Where a show's title says what it is about, take it at its word. A programme built around experimental and avant-garde music, or around funk and soul, or around global club sounds, has told you what it wants before you have written a line.
3. One sentence in your own voice about why you made the record beats a paragraph of press-release language every time. Anyone who reads music emails for a living can spot the second kind instantly, and it is the point at which they stop reading.
4. If you are UK-based, upload to the BBC Introducing Uploader at bbc.co.uk/introducing/uploader as well as writing to shows. The genre you choose at upload can route the track to national specialist shows, so choose it deliberately rather than picking the first plausible option.
5. Know when a record does not fit and say so to yourself before you send it. Sending everything everywhere is the habit that makes a name worth ignoring, and the cost of it lands on the release after this one.
Frequently asked questions
How do I describe a record that is honestly two things at once?
Say how the two meet rather than naming both and hoping. Specify what one element contributes, what the other contributes, and what the combination makes that neither would alone. One sentence is enough. Naming two genres side by side reads as a record that has not decided, and describing it as genre-defying says nothing at all.
Should I write a different email for each 6 Music show?
Write one clear description of the record and change the opening line for each show. That line names the programme and says why it is that programme, ideally referring to something they actually played. Rewriting the whole thing for each show usually produces something more tailored and less honest, and the shows can tell.
Does 6 Music care about streaming numbers or chart position?
Leading with them works against you. What is worth mentioning is evidence that people have connected with what you do: rooms you have filled, a review that meant something, a show that played you before. If the numbers are the strongest thing you have, that is useful information about the record rather than about the station.
How do I write for 6 Music's daytime audience without being patronising?
Assume they know as much about music as you do, because many of them do. Write about craft, about how the record was made and about where it sits in what you have done, and leave out anything that explains a reference. The mistake is not being too technical, it is being too impressed with yourself.
What should a one-page description actually contain?
Three sentences on what the record is and why it exists, two or three current reference points, a line about where it fits in your own work, and a line naming the show you are sending it to and why. About two hundred words in total, in your own voice, with a private link that opens without a login.
From the field
Proof points
- Named contact reply rate vs generic inbox: 5x to 10x higher when pitching a named music team contact compared with studio@, info@ or admin@ addresses (5 yrs of Liberty pitch logs)
- Best UK send window: Tuesday and Wednesday 09:00 to 10:00 UK, roughly 30 to 40% better engagement than Monday or Friday afternoons
- Follow-up cadence: One follow-up at +7 days referencing any rotation plays as social proof, then stop
- WARM as truth: Plays in rotation often happen with no email reply at all. Reply count is the leading indicator, WARM data is the lagging one that matters
What actually happened
Eyes Glued, BBC Radio 6 Music: 153 plays followed a positioning that referenced two specific recently-played artists rather than a broad genre claim. (March 2025)
Genre on the pitch line is a sorting hint, not a marketing hook. I write two reference points the show has actually played in the last fortnight, then one production detail that says I know the difference between this track and the next one in the inbox. Vague genre tags get filtered before the link is clicked.
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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