Coldplay back campaign to save 6 Music as audience reaches 1m listeners

Coldplay have thrown their weight behind a campaign to save threatened BBC station 6 Music, Music Week have reported on their website. The band have lined up alongside the likes of La Roux, Sigur Ros, The Zutons and Delphic as the latest acts to back the digital service, which has been recommended for closure alongside the BBC Asian Network. Both stations' futures are now subject to a BBC Trust consultation process, which closes for submissions on May 25.

“We would like to voice our strong opposition to the dropping of 6 Music and the Asian network from the BBC’s roster,” Coldplay said in a statement. “We have noticed on our travels that two of the things which people most love about Britain are its musical output and the BBC. They’re both widely recognised as being second to none.”

Artists including Snow Patrol, Depeche Mode, The Ting Tings, The Cure and Elbow had previously already added their support to the campaign, via the BPI’s website The Joy of 6. BPI chairman Tony Wadsworth says, “The clamour of voices from the artist community is getting louder and clearer – some of Britain’s biggest bands are deeply concerned about the proposed closure of 6 Music and many artists are also afraid that it will deny newcomers the opportunity they’ve had to get started.”

This latest artist support comes as a new survey conducted via The Joy of 6 found almost half (49.1%) of the station’s audience listen every day, while nearly another third (32.5%) listen most days of the week. The study also found that 98.1% agreed it played a lot of music they did not hear on other stations, while 97.7% of respondents liked discovering new music and three-quarters had gone to see bands live after hearing them on the station.

“6 Music’s listeners have told us that they love discovering new bands and, for them, the station is airing new music that isn’t getting playlisted elsewhere,” says BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor. “The proposed closure of 6 Music would mean less exposure for new music, which would have a significant and negative impact on Britain’s cultural heritage.”

Among the survey’s other findings were 28.4% had listened to 6 since its 2002 launch, 42.0% had listened for three or four years and 10.7% had started listening in the past year.

DAB was the most popular way of hearing the station, one selected by 80.6% of respondents, followed by 53.2% via the BBC webiste, 39.7% through the BBC iPlayer and 36.4% via Freeview or satellite TV.

Pictures of winning auction items (Jonny Buckland's VIVA guitar - Blacky) in the Coldplay end of decade clearout sale (by Jason-DeBord):