BBC Archives

BBC Sounds streams 617 million plays in Q4 2023

08/02/2024

BBC Sounds streams 617 million plays in Q4 2023 with on-demand plays up 16.8% year on year according to recent figures released by the BBC. On-demand listening of the BBC’s audio content grew between October and December with BBC Sounds achieving a record 231 million plays for on-demand radio programmes, podcasts and music mixes. Christmas music contributed to a record 6.2 million plays for music mixes on BBC Sounds, up 32% from last year. Key […]

UK’s National Album Day returns in October

21/03/2023

UK’s National Album Day returns in October on Saturday the 14th and this year it will be themed around The 90s, following previous celebrations that included The 80s, Women in Music, and, just last year, Debut Albums. It will also help to honour 75 years of the album LP format. Now in its sixth edition, this year’s National Album Day will look to shine a light on a decade that skipped between Britpop, Trip Hop and Hip Hop; gave […]

BBC Radio to stop Shoutcast streaming

11/03/2023

BBC Radio to stop Shoutcast streaming from mid-2023 and will focus on HLS and DASH as its preferred audio streaming technologies. According to the broadcaster ‘This will allow us to understand more about how and where our content is consumed and will help us improve the services we offer to our listeners.’ It continues ‘Shoutcast is an older streaming technology and many connected radio devices in the UK no longer use it for BBC streams. […]

BBC Sounds streams 417 million plays in Q4 2022

04/02/2023

BBC Sounds streams 417 million plays in Q4 2022 with on-demand plays up 18.2% year on year according to recent figures released by the BBC. On-demand listening of the BBC’s audio content grew between October and December with BBC Sounds achieving a record 197.7 million plays for on-demand radio programmes, podcasts and music mixes. Topping the charts was Newscast, and the BBC’s Football titles, including Football Daily and Match of the Day: Top 10, which […]

UK National Album Day will return on 15th October

03/04/2022

UK National Album Day will return on Saturday 15th October and this year will take as its theme Debut Albums, following themes set in previous years including Women in Music and the 80s. Now in its 5th year, National Album Day aims to shine a light on the art form of the album, celebrating the creativity and artistry that goes into making an album. The Debut Albums theme will look to showcase a broad range […]

BBC Sounds app gets upgrades

02/03/2022

BBC Sounds app gets upgrades including the ability to control their play queue and integration into the Sonos app. Listeners with iOS devices will now be able to add, sort and delete items in their play queue. How to control your play queue in BBC Sounds To access the queue, when listening to any podcast, radio show or music mix on Sounds, listeners can tap on the button in the bottom right of the screen. […]

BBC Sounds app gets over 1.3Bn plays in 2021

31/12/2021

BBC Sounds app gets over 1.3Bn plays in 2021 (January to November) an increase of 8% over a similar period in 2020 according to a recent blog post by the BBC. The latest figures also show there were 558 million plays of podcasts and on demand radio programmes in 2021, with a nearly 25% increase in podcast listening compared to the same period last year. On demand listening for music mixes on BBC Sounds also […]