Where are you based?
South East London.
Where do you work? What do you do?
I am the Senior Digital Content Manager at BPI, looking after digital content and strategy for our consumer-facing brands, which include the likes of The BRIT Awards, and the Mercury Prize.
What are you listening to?
At the minute I have both the Wet Leg and the new Fontaines D.C. albums on repeat. Fontaines D.C. are just an ace band and each of their three records is superb in their own right. There’s something really infectious about Wet Leg’s music; prior to working at BPI I was at BBC Music Introducing and I was working on the Solent show (covering Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight, where Wet Leg are from) that played some of their early stuff.
How do you discover new music?
I find you’re always a good conversation away from being recommended something really great, and hearing other people’s passion and excitement for new music definitely makes me want to check something out more. Personally, I love using streaming platforms to help discovery (both brand new artists and artists with catalogues), and being exposed to so many artists from nearly every genre imaginable remains such an exciting prospect.
Working with massive consumer-facing brands such as The BRITs, we’re all about the next big hit from the biggest artists, so we’re always looking to be engaged with fanbases and see what they’re excited about – and you can learn a lot from them too!
“I love using streaming platforms to help discovery (both brand new artists and artists with catalogue), and being exposed to so many artists from nearly every genre imaginable remains such an exciting prospect.”
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?
I primarily use streaming to discover, before going out and buying the LP if I love the record, and I try to make sure purchasing LPs is a regular thing. I still have a lot of love for the CD and I really think it will remain a format that hangs around despite the continued growth of streaming and resurgence of vinyl.
“I still have a lot of love for the CD and I really think it will remain a format that hangs around despite the continued growth of streaming and resurgence of vinyl.”
Where do you do most of your music listening?
To be honest, I’m listening to music all the time! I always have something in the background while I work (normally a selection of newly-released albums), and then I love to test out things I’ve found with others, for example when I’m cooking.
I treated myself to a proper hi-fi setup at the start of the pandemic and I think it might have been one of the best things I’ve ever purchased!
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?
In my job, it is very rare that I actually get to hear anything pre-release, but that actually can prove quite helpful in communicating with our audiences, especially on BRIT’s digital channels, who also won’t have heard anything. It means we get to easily react alongside them when the biggest tracks drop as we’re as much in the dark as they are!
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
For me, the benefits far outweigh any frustrations. Being able to ping links to people is far more convenient than posting CDs, for example, and it’s much easier to be able to shout about a track when it’s so accessible.
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
I’m quite old school on this front! I normally try and listen to as many new albums as I can, and make a note of them as I go, especially the ones I want to go back to, or ones that I want to share. And even though predominantly most of my listening (even on streaming) comes through albums, I do build a big playlist for the year of everything that I love!
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
Probably too much to be honest. When you hear something and it’s exciting you just want to tell everyone, and I’m sure my friends outside the industry have lost all confidence when I come to them saying something is amazing as it happens so regularly.
At BPI we have our amazing research team who are across all the stats and figures in the recorded sector so literally nothing that is trending gets past them.
Anything you want to “promote”?
The British and Irish music scene is thriving at the moment so this year’s Mercury Prize is going to be tasty, and there should be another excellent Shortlist. The Awards Show itself will take place in September, but the Shortlist is announced in July.
More information on the BPI is here.
