According to the latest RAJAR results, BBC Radio 1 is in rude health. Its audience of 8.1m listeners aged 15 and above is up 5.6% year-on-year, while Radio 1 Breakfast With Greg James remains the biggest for young audiences in the country. It’s the third-most-listened-to BBC station in the U.K., behind Radio 2 and Radio 4, respectively. The brand’s social-media stats are also impressive—the Radio 1 YouTube channel has more than 8.3m subscribers, and there are 9.5m followers across its Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X accounts.

As head of BBC Radio 1, Aled Jones tells us in an expansive interview that he and his team are as committed as ever to using their reach to help the U.K. music industry grow artist careers at home and abroad. We also chat with Jones about the evolution of radio, the biggest challenges about working in the space and the most exciting developments.

You’ve been head of BBC Radio 1 for four years now. What was your vision for the station upon taking on the role and how has that been realized?

The first thing in my mind when I started the job was not to mess it up. Radio 1 is such a heritage, legacy behemoth of a station that has so much clout and importance for the U.K. and the global music industry that it isn’t the station I needed to fix. I wanted to make sure it was doing its right job and doing it as well as possible, but doing it in a way that didn’t ruin anything. On that front, I think we’re good. We’re still the biggest radio station for young people in the U.K. We still have music industry buy-in and regular conversations with some of the biggest global superstars in the world.

The thing I wanted to make sure we focused on was what our strengths were when the market was changing so dramatically for consumption. We’ve done two things: We’ve focused on under-35s and under-25s to make sure that young people are getting what they need from the BBC. Also, we’ve homed in on not just playing lots of music, which we do effortlessly, but doing it in a way that has artist journeys at the heart of it.

How do you choose which new acts to back? I’m wondering how much of a role streaming and social-media stats play in playlisting decisions.

It’s a factor, of course, but the playlist is so unique these days. The playlist meetings are 10 young people in a room with the Radio 1 music team. Some producers in that room produce the specialist shows, which play new music and new artists, and they can give first-hand reactions to how tracks have been going down. You’ve also got some producers from the daytime shows who are experts in music and youth culture and are able to use their gut for what feels right. Then there’s the relationships the music team have with labels about what support they’re getting and how artists are coming through on TikTok or socials. It all comes together, rather than it being a stats-driven model.

Our team can have conversations with artists to say, ‘We will back you’. We’ve launched Brit List, which supports certain artists through a number of tracks to help them gain traction with an audience. A streaming site, say, operates on a track-by-track basis. There you’ll get large visibility if a song happens to connect and do really well. But the next one could disappear because you haven’t built a fan base around it in the way you would through a radio station that is championing your name across billions of impacts across the radio industry over a course of several months.

You mentioned focusing on attracting an under-25 and under 35-year-old audience. How are you able to do that and compete with the many other things out there clamoring for their attention?

It’s a million-dollar question, and if I got it right I’d be a very rich person. The good thing about Radio 1 is we’re not just a linear radio station; we’re part of BBC Music, which has access to iPlayer, BBC Sounds, BBC TV channels and other radio stations. That gives us clout. We have partnerships with music festivals, which means we’re able to host stages and artists in front of young people when they’re having the time of their life, and they’re able to connect that experience with the Radio 1 brand.

We’re the world’s biggest social channels for a radio station and the world’s biggest YouTube channel for a radio station. When we did Big Weekend, we had five-and-a-half million streams for the festival in the U.K., through iPlayer and Sounds. We had around the same number, if not a little bit more, from live listening to the radio. Across the BBC social channels we had over 100 million views of our content.

That figure is multiplied three times when you take in all the audience members at the festival with us. We see ourselves as content creators with a range of platforms to broadcast on. Radio 1 is the big one; that’s the one that brings in 8 million young people on a weekly basis. But when you add in everything else, it levels up to a big impact for artists.

How do you see audience listening habits evolving?

It’s more targeted. The amount of hours all audiences in the U.K., but young people especially, are listening has gone up considerably. That’s because you’ve got listening on YouTube, streaming sites and radio. When you look at under 25s and under 35s, they’ve grown up with media that’s personalized to them, whether that’s Netflix, TikTok, Spotify or YouTube. If you’re a broadcaster like Radio 1, you are a broad broadcaster, not a narrowcaster that’s personalized. It’s important we understand our audience and have access to different platforms to be able to serve content to different need states.

For example, 20 years ago, most audiences in the U.K. just listened to Radio 1, day and night, whatever we put on there, whatever mood you’re in, it was Radio 1. Nowadays there’s so much choice. You might have Radio 1 in the daytime but in the evening, if I’m having some friends over, I might want a mood met and that will be different to what radio would supply.

We need to meet the moods of social media, which is time-killing entertainment and snapshots of attention span. We need to be able to take the content that we consume, the artist journeys we’re working on, the relationships we’re having with the industry, and supply that content to meet those moods in those spaces. No longer is it a passive one-stream linear output from Radio 1, it’s infinitely more complex because the audience is more complex, has more needs and more opportunities to meet them.

How are you tackling diversity in your output and striking the right balance between supporting U.K. and international acts?

Our service license requires us to play 45% U.K. music and we exceed that. We do that with gender and we do that with genres. Radio 1 is hugely, overwhelmingly, a force for good for U.K. artists and acts. Hand in hand with that fact, we’re also a reflection of popular culture and it’s a global artist industry. Having a space like Radio 1 is important because we’ve got to keep the U.K. music industry strong. The BBC plays a huge role in making sure that U.K. artists get that first leg up, from new tracks to traction in the U.K., to someone like Stormzy, who can then leapfrog to a global perspective.

There was a lot of disappointment over the decision to reduce the number of the BBC’s Introducing shows across local radio last year, which provide a platform for new talent and acts that may not have a big audience yet. What role does BBC Radio 1 play in filling any gaps left by those cuts?

Sixty percent of our daytime playlist is new music released in the last six weeks. After 6pm, 100% of our music is new music. We play over 1,000 unique tracks per week, which is more than our nearest competitor plays per year. The vast majority of that percentage is music from new acts who have never achieved traction in the U.K. Radio 1 is already a massive machine giving new artists, whether U.K. or abroad, a huge platform for hundreds of thousands or millions of people to listen to.

What I believe is most important for Introducing is that the department is connected to the rest of the BBC. I don’t think it is solely the job of local radio to do the Introducing job; otherwise they’ll only achieve a certain amount of results for the artists in those areas. What’s much more important is that the local BBC networks connect with the national BBC networks, which connect with the festivals that we put on. We have a BBC Introducing stage at Big Weekend, as well as Reading and Leeds Festivals, Glastonbury and many others. 6 Music has Introducing, as does 1Xtra, Asian Network, Radio 1 and Radio 1 Dance. The connection of local, national and festival is really what the power of Introducing at the BBC is.

Much has been said about the fear that streaming could eventually make radio obsolete. How would you respond to that?

In the pandemic, I saw a stat that said 99% of under-25-year-olds have some access to some streaming sites and, at that time, over 76% listened to radio. The best way to look at streaming, and the way I see it working, is back in the day you’d have your private collection of songs that you’d go and buy and then you’d listen to the radio. That then morphed into iTunes, where you can download and then listen to radio. Nowadays, you are paying a subscription to have access to the music that you want to listen to regularly, but when it comes to a live connection with other audiences, the fear of missing out, Beyoncé or Billie Eilish releasing a new album and you want to know what you’re meant to think about it, massive news stories like the death of the Queen, that’s when people tune in in mass numbers to radio. Those needs never go. Streaming music sites will supply a part of the thing that’s needed but not the full story.

If someone wants new music or to reminisce with songs that are a surprise, that will come from curated playlists through radio stations that are streaming at you through the car, the radio or the smart speaker in the office or home, rather than the set of songs you listen to regularly as your own private playlist on one of the streaming sites. They are 100% coexisting. As for podcasting, there’s more people listening to more audio and that’s how we’re able to have such a high percentage for radio, which for all audiences is still in the 90s percentile of people listening, and still have the growth of podcasts. There’s room for all in the more established markets.

What are the biggest challenges about working in radio today?

There’s a perception that radio isn’t new or cool tech, whereas actually we reach 76% of very young audiences to 90% of all. For the music industry, where are the levers you pull when it comes to streaming sites? You’re either going to have an algorithm that gets your song played or it’s not. There’s no conversation. There’s no building of relationships like you do with the radio industry. When Ariana Grande comes to town, she can have a Live Lounge performance where she shows off her skill set, she can have an interview with someone about the craft of music and what she puts into it in the evening, and she can go into our breakfast show and have a game, which means that a new slew of audiences can see a different side to her, pick up that personality and become connected to who she is as a person, which is way more than what technology can bring with playing you tracks in a playlist.

How about the most exciting developments in the space that you’re working in?

Data is not all bad. When it comes to selecting music, you don’t want to replace the human, but when you want to know what audiences are into, data has been really insightful. With radio moving to digital, whether that’s smart-speaker apps or connected devices, we’re able to see what levers we can pull that make audiences listen for longer and consume us for more moments across the week.

It means that we’ve changed how we do things. For example, for Radio 1 in Ibiza in August, we broadcast 80 hours of dance, rather than a six-hour Ibiza performance night, because we’ve seen how to make audiences stay with us across the whole weekend. We repeated that two weeks later in Malta. For Reading Festival, we’ve extended how much coverage we do. Again, from audience insights about what it is they want from us, it’s given us a lot more insight into how to better serve audiences, and that’s happened in the last three, four years. I’ve been in radio for 26 years, and it’s really changed how targeted we can be in our broadcasting.

What’s unique or special about British radio in particular?

In the U.K., you’ve got a very strong and healthy commercial radio market and you’ve got a very healthy license-funded public-service radio market. The two of them coexist really well. For Radio 1, because of the license fee, we’re able to do what’s healthiest for the music industry and take bets and artists at a very early stage and work with them, management and labels for the entire journey. Commercial radio then comes in once we’ve done the legwork and started getting traction to take those artists to other parts of the population that don’t consume the BBC. That symbiotic approach in the U.K. is extremely strong and is quite unique around the world. There’s only a few other markets that have that balance.

Here’s a final question for you: What does the future look like for BBC Radio 1 and its music strategy?

It’s about personalization and how far we can go with that. Our Sounds app is going to get better and better at serving BBC content that meets your needs. We have a second stream on BBC Sounds called Radio 1 Dance, and we’re working on a second brand extension. We have Radio 1Xtra as well. It’s about the BBC being able to meet more of your needs, no matter where you are, whether that’s audio, visual or social. We’re going to continue with that strategy and continue to work with the music industry, not just for playing songs in the U.K., but using our huge footprint around the world on YouTube and social media to create impact for all artists, but particularly U.K. artists.

There’s little doubt that British radio is thriving. Radio attracts 51m listeners every week across the U.K., which is 88% of the adult population, according to stats from research body RAJAR.

A recent report from communication services regulator Ofcom says that despite strong competition from streaming services, live radio continues to be the most popular form of audio across the country for those aged 15+. Commercial radio leads the market, thanks to strong brands like Global and Bauer, with a listening share of 53.3%. The BBC, a public-service broadcaster, takes second place with a 44.5% share.

Radio remains a key promo avenue for labels and artists, as you’ll hear across the rest of these pages. It looks set to become even more important in the future as stations commit to supporting artists in an increasing variety of ways, notably investing in content and technology.

As BBC Radio 1 Head Aled Jones tells us, “We see ourselves as content creators with a range of platforms to broadcast on.” These platforms include the traditional airwaves, alongside social channels, festivals, events and streaming sites.

The next six years of evolution at Bauer Media Audio is about “investment in content and working with record labels to do 360 campaigns around artists,” says the division’s head of Audio, Gary Stein.

Radio isn’t just “keeping up” with advances in technology, according to James Rea, Chief Broadcasting and Content Officer at Global. “It’s leading the way with advanced technology that makes it more accessible and engaging,” he says, while pointing to the company’s app, Global Player.

Rebecca Allen, President of UMG U.K.’s Audience and Media division, says radio’s role in 2024 is “largely driven by curation and context. It has always dared to put the unfamiliar next to the familiar. And, whether on the airwaves or elsewhere, people we know are those we trust most to make a new-music recommendation.”

She continues: “Radio exposes listeners to tracks, artists and genres they may otherwise never have fallen upon.” Beyond traditional radio, Allen also points to online platforms like London-based global online network NTS, “which is driven by huge, global communities of passionate music curators.”

There’s no doubt, she adds, that a bespoke radio moment done right can lift an artist. This can be seen in Capitol U.K. artist Olivia Dean’s Live Lounge performance for BBC Radio 1 last October, which Allen calls “a catalyst for lots of global discovery.”

In addition, she says the BBC’s support for Island U.K. breakthrough act The Last Dinner Party, from early playlisting to their winning the BBC’s Sound Of 2024 poll, has played a key role in their success. You’ll hear more about both of those acts in this issue.

Sony Music U.K. Chairman and CEO Jason Iley echoes Allen’s remarks about radio remaining a champion for human curation. “While the medium of consumption has evolved, radio can still open doors and provide opportunities for emerging artists,” he asserts. “DJs who are passionate about music and are willing to take risks and back an artist early are vital to the music ecosystem.

“That first play can move the dial for an artist, and one thing that isn’t likely to change is the joy and excitement an artist feels when hearing their track played on the radio for the first time.”

As Iley points out, the diversity of British radio, which ranges from BBC flagship channels Radio 1 and Radio 2 to a wealth of specialist and local stations and offerings that focus on today’s hits, catalog music and much more, is a key factor in its strength. He says: “The BBC have always played a crucial role in shaping the landscape of broadcasting in the U.K. and have provided vast and varied music for many years. The melting pot of genres and artists they support is unique and not replicated in other markets around the world.

“We have huge commercial networks around the country, including Global, who organize successful events annually, and Bauer, who continually help increase audience reach nationally.”

Warner Music U.K. CEO Tony Harlow urges the music industry and broadcasters to continue to support the variety mentioned by Iley. “I’d ask that everyone values all these openings and they aren’t the victims of funding cuts and increasingly tough advertising markets, and we can continue to be spoiled for choice.”

When asked about the role of radio in 2024, Harlow says that while “it’s always great to see a song gain traction on streaming platforms, we start to get really excited that we have a big crossover hit when we see it climb the airplay charts.”

He explains: “Radio is a great indicator of how well the track is connecting with a wider audience and how established an artist is in the mainstream. After a few radio hits you really start to see an artist become a staple in the public consciousness. Streaming can break a song, but radio helps break an artist.”

The format is also essential, Harlow adds, for cutting through the amount of choice that music fans are faced with. “In the U.K. there’s so much music out there—radio helps people who are overwhelmed by that to find a way through it, and focus on finding songs they love. It also continues to ‘event-ize’ and localize our hits, with content that helps bring artists to life through interviews, live lounges, major outdoor events and so on.”

Discussing the relationship between streaming and radio, Harlow says the latter adds fuel to a burgeoning fire. “When we see a song start to stream, that’s when we push hard to get it up the radio playlists. We can add impetus to a track that’s doing well on streaming platforms and turn it into a proper hit, and give it longer life, through radio play.”

Disney Jr., in partnership with Terrapin Station Entertainment and Proactiv Entertainment, is taking “Disney Jr. Live On Tour: Let’s Play!” to the U.K. for the first time with six performances at London’s Royal Festival Hall next 3/15-16.

The immersive concert experience boasts an interactive musical performance that includes singing, dancing, 3D special effects and acrobatics with performances all designed for Disney Jr.’s most devoted young fans. The tour will continue to the Middle East and Asia, with additional 2025 tour dates to be announced.

The concert features hit songs from several popular Disney Jr. series, including “Hot Dog!” from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, “Do the Spidey” from Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends (written by Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump) and “Oopsie Kitty” from SuperKitties (written by Keith Harrison Dworkin).

"Disney Jr. Live has been delivering memories and magic to families in the U.S. for the past six years," Terrapin Station Producer Jonathan Shank noted. "It is so exciting to have the opportunity to bring that same magic to the U.K. and the rest of the world, bringing children closer to their favorite iconic Disney Jr. characters."

Tickets go on sale Thursday (11/21). Find more information here while we mourn our youth.

Katy Perry will donate £1 from every ticket sold at five 10/2025 U.K. dates of her The Lifetimes Tour to the Music Venue Trust. They're her first shows in the region in seven years.

Proceeds will go directly to initiatives that support the U.K. grassroots music community. According to the charity, venues have been closing at a rate of two per week due to rising costs.

Other acts to have pledged a portion of ticket sales to MVT this year include Coldplay, Enter Shikari and Sam Fender.

A recent Government report encouraged the U.K. live music business to adopt this approach on a mass basis by bringing in a voluntary levy for stadium and concert tickets.

The final four honorees for the U.K.’s Artist & Manager Awards have been revealed, with Paloma Faith (pictured), Riverman Management, Milk & Honey and Finesse Foreva set to be celebrated 11/21 in London.

The event will salute Faith with the Icon award in celebration of her long career in music, which spans six Top 10 U.K. albums and five Top Ten tracks, including one #1. Her most recent album, The Glorification of Sadness (Sony), reached #2 in February.

Riverman Management, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, will take home the Managers’ Manager award. Launched by Alex Weston and Dave McLean in 1989, the company initially cut its teeth as a concert promoter before moving into management in 1995. Its current roster includes Placebo, Friedberg, Dea Matrona, Tom Fleming (ex-Wild Beasts) and Dougie Poynter.

The 2024 Writer & Producer Manager of the Year will be awarded to Ant Hippsley, the head of U.K. operations for Milk & Honey. The company reps Finn Keane (aka Easyfun), who co-wrote and produced “Speed Drive” (Atlantic), Charli xcx’s contribution to the Barbie soundtrack, as well as five tracks on BRAT, including global hits “Von Dutch” and “Sympathy Is a Knife.”

Finesse Foreva, which was founded in 2017 by childhood friends SK, TK and producer JB MadeIt, will receive the Team Achievement award. The company operates as an independent record label, production house and management company and works with acts including Russ Millions, rap duo Skengdo x AM and producers Gotcha and JB MadeIt.

Previously announced honorees include Pet Shop Boys and Angela Becker, Chase & Status and Sophie Kennard, Yungblud and Special Projects Music, the late SOPHIE, Cymande plus shortlists for Breakthrough Artist and Breakthrough Manager. This year’s ceremony will introduce a new award, the Secret Weapon Award, which recognizes a critical member of a management company who has made invaluable contributions behind the scenes.

The U.K.’s live music industry should introduce a levy on arena and stadium concert tickets to support the grassroots music sector, per a report from the new Labour Government backing the proposal.

The suggestion was first introduced in a report on the issues facing grassroots music venues published by the Culture Media and Sport Committee in May. The British Government responded to the recommendation, agreeing that the levy would be the “quickest and most effective mechanism” to support the grassroots sector and ensure the “health and future success” of the U.K.’s live music ecosystem.

The Government is recommending that the levy be voluntary and led by the industry for potential use in 2025. The music sector is being encouraged to invest in an independent evaluation to assess the effectiveness of its impact.

If action isn’t taken, the Government says it’s willing to use its “convening powers” to bring people to the table to start the process, if necessary. It will also consider progress made on the implementation and effectiveness of a levy and whether further action is needed to support a sustainable grassroots sector.

Mark Davyd, CEO and founder of the Music Venue Trust, welcomed the news. “We strongly support [the Government’s] stance on the necessity and desirability of a grassroots contribution and believe this response sets out a clear and achievable path for the live music industry to swiftly adopt such a contribution,” he said.

“Everyone knows grassroots live music is in crisis. The current situation is untenable," added Music Managers Forum CEO Annabella Coldrick. "Every week I hear from music managers trying to do the impossible and bridge catastrophic shortfalls in their artists touring budgets. A ticket levy on all large-scale live music events to support touring artists at this level to get out on the road remains the most practical solution. It is now imperative that we in the industry stand up and deliver it.”

The U.K.’s O2 Silver Clef Awards, held in aid of music therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins, will move to a Wednesday evening from a Friday lunch event in 2025.

Next year’s ceremony will return to the JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London on 7/2 from 6pm. The change is attributed to a shift in "culture and lifestyle" that’s taken place since the pandemic.

The awards, which will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2026, are Nordoff and Robbins’ largest annual fundraising event. Since 1976, they've raised more than £13.5m for the charity.

Joe Munns, Chair of the O2 Silver Clef Awards Committee, said, “After 48 years of being held on a Friday afternoon, we are changing with the times and our industry, and we’re very excited to be able to welcome more of you than ever to this spectacular event.”

The cost of running Nordoff and Robbins is now said to reach almost £9m annually. Sandra Schembri, CEO of the charity, said, “We are currently being hit by a triple threat: growing demand, increasing costs and decreasing donations. We need the music industry’s support to ensure we can show up where we are needed."

This year’s ceremony raised more than £760k—enough to pay for more than 9k music therapy sessions—and honored Blur with the O2 Silver Clef Award. Previous winners include David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Dame Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, George Michael, Kylie Minogue, The Rolling Stones, Oasis and Coldplay.

Cherrytree Music Company, the label, management firm and publisher behind Sting, Shaggy and Michael Einziger, will host a live show in London on 11/22.

The event will take place in collaboration with pop music blog EQ Music and feature Cherrytree acts Sophie Grey. and Nico Tortorella. Independent songwriters MYYLO and Nic Billington, who’ve been championed by EQ Music, will also perform.

Cherrytree Music Company CEO Martin Kierszenbaum said, “EQ has been hosting shows in the live space for some time so the idea to join forces and present this special night came about very organically. It’s going to be an exciting evening.”

The relationship between Cherrytree and EQ Music began in 2011 when EQ covered the first Cherrytree London event with Ellie Goulding, LMFAO and Far East Movement.

Cherrytree will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year.