BBC Radioplay Music

From 1974 to 1998, BBC Radioplay Music Library produced a series of Radioplay LPs & CDs exclusive to the British Broadcasting Corporation for use in its radio broadcasts. BBC Radioplay LPs & CDs were produced solely to be issued to BBC radio stations and featured unique recordings, edits and compilations of tracks around a general theme. These pressings were free from copyright and hence 'non-needle time' - the UK Musicians Union arrangement which placed heavy restrictions on the amount of recorded music that could be transmitted by the BBC during any 24-hour period. Earlier vinyl releases sometimes contained unique material recorded by the BBC (or partner organisations in Europe, USA etc). A number were live recordings, but there are also versions of well known songs recorded in radio station studios. Later, the releases were solely made up of unique compilations of commercial tracks. Where a company had broadcast a programme, it was able to make records of that programme for further radio use and it shared these with other broadcasters despite the fact that, sometimes, record companies had the rights to release the material on commercial records. Sometimes an agreement was reached with a commercial record company to copy one of its records to create a recording that was not covered by the "needle time" restriction. Some releases were devoted to a particular artist, such as ABBA, Elton John and Prince and have become highly collectible, due to the limited pressing runs (estimated at the low hundreds) and subsequent scarcity. Some releases contain edits of commercial tracks not available on any other releases. As the releases were usually pressed by companies like Nimbus and were for broadcast, the quality of the production and pressing is usually very high. For the vinyl LPs, the front sleeves were often exactly the same design, with a picture of the featured artist & title being the only difference. The rear sleeve notes the title, tempo, intro, duration, end, composer, publisher and blurb related to the track (so the presenter could appear knowledgeable!) All CDs contained unique artwork and were prefaced with the TAIRCD reference. CDs were manufactured at the Nimbus plant. CDs were produced from 1988 to 1998. "BBC Radioplay Music is not available to the public."