24 March 2011 Last updated at 08:30 ET

What is BBC Kent Introducing?

Jacob plays an hour of music for Kent artists every Sunday night

BBC Kent Introducing is all about supporting unsigned, undiscovered and under the radar music from around Kent.

Bands and artists from Kent often ask us how we choose the music that we play on the show. It is not an exact science and is mostly about personal opinion and balancing genres.

Here are some pointers which will help you get noticed and hopefully get you played on the show.

Do I have to be unsigned?

No. Chances are that you are unsigned if we haven't already heard of you, but not all of the music we play is from brand-new artists. We won't rule out playing new material from more established major-label Kent acts like Good Books (Sevenoaks), Morcheeba (Hythe), Orbital (Sevenoaks) or, more recently, Pixie Lott (Chislehurst).

We see it as a great encouragement for newer talent that local bands are getting noticed internationally, so the success of the more well-known artists is just as important to us.

If it is any inspiration, the two Kent bands who played at Radio 1's Big Weekend in 2009 were signed to indies: Elephants (Vacuous Pop) and Kids Love Lies (Cherryade).

Do I have to be from Kent?

Yes. If your band has a connection with our county, you're eligible to be played on BBC Kent Introducing. If nobody in your band is from Kent, you can't be on our show but you can be on your local BBC Introducing show.

Elephants at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Maidstone

We really respect bands who are proud of their Kentish roots, especially in their online material. On your MySpace profile, change your 'location' to the name of your town or village. Remember that people can also use the search function to find bands from their area, so it will also help you get booked for gigs and potentially get played on other radio stations.

We enjoy good local stories and very grassroots Kent connections and we have also played some songs about local places (like Spooka's Planet Thanet). All of this makes for interesting and engaging local radio.

Does it matter what kind of music I make?

On a Sunday night we are sandwiched between Dave Cash's country music and Simon Evans' folk show, so we are part of a great line up of specialist music shows, but it is all undoubtedly for a very different audience to ours.

Although we're open to listening to music of any genre, we're really looking for interesting and original new music that will appeal to our show's young audience.

In the space of one hour we regularly go from the screamiest of heavy metal bands to the most soothing folk ballads, and the darkest of dubstep to the most cheerful pop tunes.

What about our lyrics?

Some artists are so frustrated with the world that they feel the need to swear in their songs, which is probably fair enough.

We are not allowed to play swear words or offensive material on the radio, so we will edit these out. If you can self-censor before sending the song, that is even better. If you are unsure about something you can ask us, but as a general rule if you have to ask then you're probably not allowed to say it.

Sending music to BBC Introducing