They can't be cutting BBC Introducing. It is literally the ONE leveller new artists in the UK have! Without something like the BBC Music Introducing platforms, the gate will close. Introducing do an insane amount of work for the music scene, they are the reason why the UK alternative/independent music scene is so vibrant! Introducing networks covering every region on radio, giving up and coming artists the airplay in regions where people can go and see them live locally, giving them coverage and studio sessions; the larger Introducing coverage on 6 Music nationally. The Introducing stages at so many festivals, giving artists the first stage where they can get a grip on performing to festival crowds! None of this is an automatic process, and not one to take for granted either.
If only artists that have the time to do their own PR (i.e. artists that don't need one or more day jobs), or those that can afford to pay out people to get some of the opportunities that BBC Music's Introducing networks provides, you're very quickly staring at only a certain demographic being able to make music professionally anymore. I know now, some people get quite cynical over the word "professional" and start saying things like "no one deserves to be a professional, why should my taxes pay for your hobby" 1) gross mischaracterisation of the problem here 2) there are far more worrying things your taxes are paying for that you should be bothered about 3) weren't you the same type of fella loudly complaining in 2012 that there's "no good new music these days"? You have to invest in it. You have to give musicians the pathways to get to the places where you might hear them. You're never going to hear your favourite band if they don't have the time or money to get their feet off the ground. I could go on and on about the place expression plays in your general society, and how you do actually need the people that reflect what's going on in the world around you for a number of reasons, but even just sticking to very surface reasons, you're not going to enjoy music very much if entire voices, entire sections of society, very often working class musicians, musicians from backgrounds that don't get much leverage in the music industry, especially not if they aren't sticking to their stereotypical, industry-assigned genre (which is often just the racism talking) are cut out of music. You're not going to enjoy it, and then you'll be whining again.
origamiaround
kianamaiart
theartofmadeline
stormborns
