UK Music has launched the «Our BBC: Our Music» campaign, aimed at protecting the BBC’s government funding and ensuring the broadcaster can continue creating opportunities for emerging talent across the country. The campaign was unveiled at an event in Parliament hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Music, where MPs, industry leaders and artists warned that the BBC’s role in the music ecosystem cannot be taken for granted.
The initiative comes in response to the two-year Royal Charter Review laid out by the UK Government, which is analysing the BBC’s funding model ahead of a new charter being granted in 2027. With the corporation facing ongoing financial pressures — including a 10 per cent cut to its workforce — key figures from the music industry used the Westminster event to highlight the BBC’s wider economic and cultural impact and to push for proportionate investment from ministers.
Addressing an audience that included Elbow’s Guy Garvey and BBC radio presenters Nick Grimshaw, Greg James and Jo Whiley, the BBC’s Director of Music, Lorna Clarke, said the British music sector contributes £8 billion to the UK economy and supports 220,000 jobs. She argued that the BBC’s own activity accounts for a significant portion of that contribution. «Our activity across the UK generates income, and contributes millions to the creative economy,» Clarke said. She cited Radio 1’s Big Weekend as an example, noting that when the event was held in Dundee, Scotland, it stimulated growth of £3.7 million when independently measured.
Clarke also pointed to the broadcaster’s role in commissioning and supporting talent beyond London. She said the number of commissions won and produced by independent companies for Radio 2 had doubled from 22 per cent to 42 per cent in less than a decade. She added that the volume of different pieces of music played across BBC music in seven days is equivalent to what competitors play in 365 days. «We simply can’t lose our creative ambition,» she said, noting that Radio 1 still reaches 8 million people every week. «But with scale comes responsibility. We take our public purpose to offer value to everyone incredibly seriously. So as audiences change the way they choose to listen or watch music, we’ve adapted and evolved too.»
UK Music chief executive Tom Kiehl used the event to stress the campaign’s urgency. «This campaign has been launched at an important time for the BBC’s future,» he said. «My message today is a simple one: please do not forget that BBC is vital to music, and that music is vital to BBC. It’s to save our industry. Without the BBC, we wouldn’t see a fraction of what we currently get to listen to.» He cited PRS data showing that more than 140,000 pieces of music were played across all BBC radio stations in 2025, 77 per cent of which were not played on other commercial radio.
Kiehl also highlighted the role of BBC Introducing in creating «an environment where experimentation is encouraged, underserved genres are supported, and emergent talent can find and drive their audiences.» Looking ahead to the charter decision, he urged the industry to avoid complacency. «We may have a guitar-playing Prime Minister, who displays records in his office and gives off Radio 6 dad vibes, but in this time of economic uncertainty, we cannot solely provide goodwill in order to secure the beauty of music,» he said. «Our BBC, Our Music is designed to make sure the government really understands why the sustainable funding of the BBC is important, not just to our economy and to the 220,000 people who make up the UK music industry’s workforce, but also to every single music fan.»
The event featured performances from Newcastle-born alternative pop star Imogen And The Knife, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and singer-songwriter The Anchoress. Guy Garvey spoke about how BBC backing, particularly from John Peel, changed Elbow’s fortunes. He recalled driving into Manchester when the band’s song «Powder Blue» came on the radio. «I realised it wasn’t the cassette… it was John Peel playing our song on the radio for the first time,» he said. «It changed our lives. Things started moving for us, and we got our first record deal with Island because of the BBC.»