Tag: 6music

6Music. It’s going, but also, it’s not.

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Here we go.

We knew this was coming. And we know that the replacement for BBC  Sounds is the BBC app, which won’t allow me (or anyone else outside the UK) to listen to 6Music.

And that’s still true.

But there is a link in this article which… (unless I’m missing something) allows you to listen to 6Music – just not on the BBC Sounds app.

So this was never about a rights problem with the music, then?

But hey, that’s absolutely fine by me. I will still be able to listen to 6Music here in SA, and that’s all that matters.

To me, at least.

I can’t test it just yet, because it links straight to the BBC Sounds app – which still works.

Until July 21st.

But… but… this is fine.

Isn’t it?

Better news

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United back to winning ways?

Yes.

But also…

The BBC has delayed blocking BBC Sounds app for audiences outside the UK.

It comes after a decision made by the corporation meant listeners outside the UK would only be able to access Radio 4 and the World Service via a new audio section on BBC.com.

In a statement the BBC said it is working on plans to “continue to make other BBC stations available to listeners outside the UK” adding that it “will not close BBC Sounds outside the UK until we have confirmed these plans”.

Any backtrack on their plans would be great news for me and the many thousands of BBC listeners worldwide.

I’m not counting chickens, but I am crossing fingers.

(I’m a big grown up boy and I can count things without using my fingers now.)

It sounds good until you read it

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No, not this blog (more on that tomorrow, by the way).

No: This BBC Press Release:

That sounds great. What’s not to like?

Well, that would be the small matter of the small print halfway through the thing:

As part of this launch, the BBC will also be making BBC Sounds available exclusively to UK audiences and ending access to the service for international users beginning Spring 2025.

u wot m8?

Yep. They’re taking 6Music (and everything else) away from anyone not in the UK.

This is sad, because I’ve been a loyal listener there and here since the very beginning of the channel, and I listen for literally hours every day. Of course, there might be ways around the geofencing, which I am obviously completely unaware of, but even if I had an inkling of how to get round it, that surely just means an extra step, extra expense and more not to work.

A quick note here that the BBC makes it quite difficult to access their visual stuff via a VPN.

Or so I am told.

And sure, I get it. I don’t pay my BBC Licence Fee, I know (not that there is a Licence Fee for radio), but this isn’t really costing the BBC anything to share. The programme is made and broadcast anyway, I just pick it up somewhere else via the internet (a reminder here that 6Music is a digital only station anyway).

Except of course, it does, because music rights or something or other. No-one (including this radio expert) really seems to understand how these work, but the upshot of their messy implementation is that the BBC aren’t going to let people overseas access their content any more.

Although I’m not quite sure why, given that that side of their business is doing rather well:

The main commercial arm of BBC Commercial Ltd, BBC Studios generated revenues in the last year of £1.8 billion and a third consecutive year of profits of over £200 million.

It’s weird, because I would imagine that there’s a good percentage of 6Music listeners who aren’t in the UK. Calls and messages to shows come from expats all over the world, and the presenters read them out almost as a badge of honour. It’s going to hurt all the stations, but 6Music might notice the biggest drop, given that it has one of the smallest audiences (although it’s not clear what the UK/non-UK split is here).

Either way, I have to make a plan, because the other day, having left my phone at home, I listened to a local radio station on a short journey. It was more horrific than I had remembered.
I cannot do that again.
Let alone every day.

New Doves

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First new music from Doves in 4 years. And it’s darker and stormier than you might remember them, but still with that gritty Jimi Goodwin sound.

New album out on Valentines Day next year, and it’s apparently going to follow the same path:

Looking at everyone’s lives over recent years, and considering the news at the moment, “Renegade” feels a lot more loaded in retrospect. We wanted to go for a dystopian feel, thinking about Manchester itself over the next century or so. A totally imaginary thing… Blade Runner set in our home city.

I’m ready whenever they are.

Day 208 – A mention

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Nemone has been sitting for Lauren Laverne on the 6 Music Breakfast Show this week and she pulled out some absolute bangers this morning. You don’t get to choose what’s on the radio, and so you’re not going to like every track back to back, but every so often, there’s one of rare those shows that just hits the mark. Repeatedly.

Today’s show was one of them. And when this came on:

Magic.

… I got in touch with Nemone because I was taken back all the way to their mental performance at Glastonbury in 2003. Not least because it took nearly a minute for their 24 red-robed members to file onto the stage and take their place. Mad.

Anyway, long story short, she had also been thinking of that performance (because music can do that to you), she replied to my tweet and then I even got a very brief mention on air.
All the way from Cape Town.

Fame. At last.

Please form an orderly queue for autographs.
No selfies, (this is for everyone’s wellbeing).