BMW Play Next started life as a ground-breaking new music podcast hosted by Edith Bowman. It was the first podcast to licence full music tracks. Launched during the lockdown of 2020, not only did licensing tracks improve the listening experience for our audience at a time when they were looking for entertainment, but it also ensured artists were paid more for their music featuring.
BMW Play Next as a podcast launched with 10 weekly episodes. It featured guests such as Giles Peterson, Hans Zimmer and Disclosure as well as 74 tracks by up-and-coming artists. BMW Play Next has received over 110,000 downloads to date and has topped the Apple podcast charts.
When planning for BMW Play Next for 2021/22, the UK found itself in the midst of another lockdown during the holiday season. UK festivals were fighting for their existence and it looked like it was going to be even harder for new artists to find a platform for their music.
Although early in the journey for establishing BMW Play Next and the unstable live music landscape, we made the decision that if our purpose was to support new artists, for this sponsorship to have maximum impact, we absolutely had to have a stage at a UK music festival: BMW Plat Next at All Points East was born.
