Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
BBC 6 Music reflects the evolution of popular music through extensive use of the BBC archive and our database of more than 3,000 tracks.

At least half the music we play will be more than four years old, and we will regularly feature concerts and sessions going back as far as the 1960s.

Theme days feature archive recordings alongside recent releases from specific artists.

We will continue to champion the development of new music through an eclectic playlist and by engaging new and less familiar artists for studio recordings.

This year:

• Live music will remain at the heart of our programming, including festival coverage throughout the summer.
• 6 Music will broadcast from new studios from spring 2006 and visiting artists will be able to take advantage of an improved performance area, the Hub.

Building digital Britain
6 Music is a digital network. We bring together musical communities of interest from across the UK and beyond, acting as a forum for debate and offering our listeners engagement on air and online. Message board users are encouraged to debate music strands and programme content.

Promoting education and learning
Our programmes will continue to examine the cultural development of popular music, and will be supplemented and supported by online information and on-demand recordings.

We provide hourly music news bulletins during most of the day on weekdays, and offer more in-depth coverage in the weekly hour-long show The Music Week.

We rebroadcast documentaries from the BBC archive, as well as commissioning new programmes that deliver insights into current musical issues.

This year:

• 6 Music will continue its Lamacq’s Library feature where books on a broad range of cultural subjects are read from and discussed in a peak daytime programme.

Sustaining citizenship and civil society
6 Music is primarily a music network, but we also deliver some opportunities for sharing opinion and building a sense of community by providing context for the music we play, through music news, documentaries and interactive content.

This year:

• 6 Music will explore the broader cultural legacy of the punk movement, 30 years after its initial impact.

Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities
We aim to reflect the whole UK by providing daytime broadcasts from a different location each month. For example, for Lamacq in the City events around the country we will put new and emerging artists on the same concert bill as well-known artists.

Our social action campaigns focus on giving audiences practical opportunities for personal development.

This year:

• 6 Music will mount three social action campaigns, with supporting online resource material.

Bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world
Most of our content – especially from the archive – originates in the UK, and many of the sessions we rebroadcast with foreign artists were originally recorded in the UK.

This year:

• 6 Music will broadcast from the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, reporting on new industry developments and showcasing British talent represented there.

Last year, BBC 6 Music’s distinctive mix of archive concerts and live music helped the network to achieve substantial year-on-year growth in audience reach – average weekly reach was up nearly 40% on 2004. However, despite being designed to appeal to all music lovers, the gender balance of listeners to the service was approximately 70:30 male:female.

In the year ahead our key priorities are to:

• Extend reach through modifying the broadcast schedule and introducing new presenters to the output.
• Broaden the appeal of the network, particularly in respect of the male/female balance of listeners.
• Evolve further the range of features dedicated to giving greater exposure to new British artists who receive less sustained airplay elsewhere.