Below are some words from the Association of Independent Musicians about the BBC 6 Music fiasco:

TAKE ACTION NOW TO SAVE BBC 6MUSIC & THE ASIAN NETWORK

You will all by now be aware of the recent announcement that BBC 6Music and The Asian Network are set to close as part of a costs review.

6Music has been a vital platform for independent music lovers since it was established in 2002. With diverse playlists, passionate presenters and a focus on all that is cutting edge and iconic, it has been the first station to provide cutting edge music that would not be heard elsewhere.

AIM has been quick to respond to this announcement and spread the message that 6Music and The Asian Network MUST NOT CLOSE. AIM CEO Alison Wenham, Beggars’ Chairman Martin Mills and Bella Union Founder Simon Raymonde have all spoken out on the news and in the press to explain the importance of 6Music. Together with the BPI, we have sent an open letter to BBC Director-General Mark Thompson (you can read this here), and we will be submitting a formal response to the BBC Trust consultation.

We must all do what we can to keep these important stations alive…let’s make our voices heard!

What You Should Do:

1. Click the link below to complete the BBC Strategy Review Online Survey - tell them how important 6Music is!

http://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/consult_view

1. Email the BBC Trust: srconsultation@bbc.co.uk

2. Sign the petitions:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/BBCcuts http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

1. Join the Facebook group to Save 6Music: www.bit.ly/aJ04tq

2. Show your support by listening to 6Music on the iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_6music/

3. Forward this message or send the links to all of your colleagues, artists, friends and family, and post the links on Twitter (use tag #savebbc6music), Facebook, Myspace etc.

The BBC will take note if enough people take action, so spread the word!

“Commercial radio can never replicate 6 Music’s cultural value - it’s not viable for us to do so. The commercial landscape has featured many fine rock music stations that have never made any real money - over time we water them down and gently shepherd them back towards the traditional commercial heartland. We will gain nothing from this closure yet the music industry will lose much.”

Steve Orchard (a former group programme director of GWR, who launched Planet Rock and programmed Classic FM, also ex-group operations director of Gcap, responsible for XFM and Capital.)

“Cherry Red Records is one of the 3 or 4 independent record labels that started in the late 1970’s and is still going strong. Last year it released over 500 albums. The majority were catalogue releases, i.e. releases of music that was no longer available. Many were from artists that were long forgotten by all but a very few. 6 Music were one for the few radio stations that played some of these tracks enabling people to become aware of some wonderful music that was virtually forgotten about. It would indeed be a tragedy if this opportunity was lost to us all. We should all do what we can to make the BBC wake up to the monumental mistake that they are in the process of making.”

Ian McNay, Cherry Red Records

A message from Domino Recording Co. Ltd…

We would like to make it clear that we are extremely concerned by BBC plans to cut BBC 6 Music from its schedule. BBC 6 Music is an extremely important and rare outlet for much of the music that we release on Domino. For many of us who grew up listening to, and learning about music from John Peel, we’ve come to appreciate this station of mostly free playlists, diversity, new things, old things, the unexpected. Indeed we’d argue that the BBC should be making this fantastic station more readily available via the masses of unused FM bandwidth.

Comments from just a few of our artists…

Noah Lennox (Animal Collective/Panda Bear)

“When I was a lot younger radio used to be the place I’d go to find new music and I feel like I would find it everywhere on the dial. Since then it seems like less and less stations are willing to or have the means to play new music. I miss unpredictable radio. Please support these guys…”

Alison Mosshart (The Kills/The Dead Weather)

“Please don’t leave us musicians and music lovers with such a void. We need BBC6. It is the only radio station we all listen too, and seemingly, the only station that plays anything worth listening too. It would be culturally damaging to lose this station. I highly doubt I would ever listen to radio in England again, if it were gone. And that goes for a great many friends and colleagues of mine. BBC6 has been very supportive to the bands that I have been in and supportive of my friends and label mates. We are all greatly appreciative of the fine work they do, and the open minds that they have. It baffles me why art and culture must always suffer and get the boot before sport or the generic music which EVERYONE plays already, anyway. We can get these trashy things anywhere. But we’re relying on BBC6 to encourage and inspire. To shut it down would be a real shame and a real mistake. Think of it as the Tate Modern of radio. We want it; we need it… because it’s unique and culturally significant.

Please save BBC 6 Music.”

Hayden Thorpe (Wild Beasts)

“The closure of BBC6 music would be a huge blow to British arts in general. I don’t know any other established vehicle, which allows for inventive and contemporary music to reach such a wide audience. I’m in no doubt the unrelenting support we have had from BBC6 has massively helped our career. This sends out a damning message to creative young people.”

Jack Barnett (These New Puritans)

“BBC6 was and is incredibly important to bands like us. In the world of ‘independent music’, where it can be difficult to survive by your ideas, it really is a unique and completely positive force. Its closure would be a massive blow to the possibilities of creative people doing creative things in this country.”

Dev Hynes (Lightspeed Champion) “The end of 6Music is such a disgrace and catastrophe, I learnt so much from it, and imagine that if I was younger I would have learnt more. A lot of people are going to remember this. This is so upsetting for music fans across the country.”

Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) “Please don’t close down 6 music and Asian network. It’s important to have stations on the radio that don’t just play mainstream music.”

Finally, a note from AIM Board Member Martin Mills…

Good afternoon,

My name is Martin Mills, and I run the Beggars Group of independent labels, the largest in Europe producing new alternative music, comprising currently the labels XL Recordings, Rough Trade, 4AD and Matador. I am also a board member of PPL and UK Music, and of the independent label associations AIM, Impala and A2IM. I chaired the Department of Culture Committee which produced the report Consumers Call The Tune, and was awarded an MBE in 2008. A list of artists signed to our labels who have recently been played on 6 Music is attached below.

I firmly believe that the BBC should not close 6 Music. 6 Music is a station for music lovers and plays music that largely is not heard anywhere else on the dial. Isn’t that what the BBC is meant to do? The BBC’s public service remit charges it to do exactly that - and 6’s output is distinctive, eclectic and unique.

Radio’s 1 and 2 do a great job at what they do, but are essentially pop music stations. 6 is the Radio 3 version of that, and is a home to great artists and music, particularly independent, who don’t fit in with its larger brothers’ programming needs - ‘album’ artists who have large followings like The National, who can sell out the Albert Hall, but who won’t fit on 1 or 2 until when or if they come up with a pop radio-shaped track. Then there are new artists like The xx, who got all their initial radio exposure on 6.

This is not an area that the commercial sector will fill - Virgin and Xfm both started off with similar ambitions, but commercial pressures diluted and normalised them. A station like 6 can only survive and prosper in the public radio sector. See annexed below * for what a specialist in commercial radio had to say about 6’s prospects in that world.

91% of listeners to 6 Music say that it introduces them to music that is new to them, and 89% say they hear music on 6 that they don’t hear elsewhere. It plays five times as many new songs as any comparable commercial stations. Last week its playlist of 28 titles included just six that were also on Radio 1, three that were in the national airplay top 50, and one that was on Radio 2. 80% of 6’s music can not be heard elsewhere on the dial. This is exactly what the BBC should be doing.

Please don’t believe that integrating 6’s programming into Radio 1 and/or 2 is the answer. They cannot avoid operating in a competitive radio environment, in which the criteria for play are tight, logical and well-researched. The kind of music that 6 plays does not by definition belong or flourish in that space, it needs its own station, not its own programmes, or its space within programmes.

6 Music is a big part of the reason that the UK’s music scene is so vital and healthy at the moment - and I don’t just mean UK music making, I mean the appreciation for and love of artistic creativity in music.

I have nothing against commercial radio. Commercial radio is commercial radio. But the beauty of the BBC is that it is a public service. It can put art and culture above commerce. That is precisely what 6 Music does. And that is precisely why we need it. You’ll hear tomorrow’s Bob Dylan on 6.

Thank you for listening.

Martin Mills, Chairman, Beggars Group

Leave a comment