2016 was a great year for UK music with Adele and David Bowie dominating UK artist sales but when it came to introducing new UK acts, 2016 was a loss. Fortunately Radio 1 are coming to the rescue.

That’s not to say that 2016 didn’t see the rise of some great new talent from our little island, like Rag N Bone Man, but overall it wasn’t a great year for breaking out new British artists. Now BBC Radio 1, the 3rd most popular UK radio station and the home of new music, have a plan to fix that with their new ‘Brit List’.

Radio 1’s Brit List will support the top up and comers in UK music that aims to help newer artists breakout on their radio station. Artists can submit themselves, whether they are signed or unsigned, to get onto the list for a “three-single playlist commitment”. Up to six new British artists will get chosen and the hope is that by their 3rd single the artist will end up on Radio 1’s A-list.

BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Head of Music, Chris Price said: “It’s no secret that the wider music industry, of which Radio 1 forms an important part, struggled to break any UK artists in 2016. This is about Radio 1 taking a leading role in trying to fix that issue. We should continue to play a part in breaking UK artists at home and on the world stage.”

If you’re an artist looking to apply for Radio 1’s new Brit List you need to submit a 1-page PDF document featuring background and statistics of you’re artist as well as links to 3 singles in order of the approximate dates you intend to release them to Ty.Powell@bbc.co.uk. To be defined as new artists can not have released an album by the submission deadline of Friday, February 3rd.