Season 2 · Episode 7
Jo Hart is the founder of Hart Media, a specialist music radio promotions company she has run for 29 years. She began her career at EMI and has worked in music promotion for 36 years. Artists she has worked with include Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Usher, N*Sync, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Enter Shikari, Jamie Cullum and Nick Cave.
Jo Hart has been in the music industry for 36 years, starting at EMI very young before moving through Size 9 PR and into Hart Media - the specialist radio promotions company she has run for 29 years. The alumni she has worked with across those decades reads like a survey of three eras of popular music: Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Usher, N*Sync, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Enter Shikari, Jamie Cullum and Nick Cave, among many others.
She worked with Justin Timberlake from the very beginning - touring the country to every radio station, plugging and plugging until he became what he became. She has one of the most specific and practical understandings of how radio actually works in this podcast, and is direct about what artists need to do to make it work for them.
She was also on the other side of the relationship that defines her work: Mark Adams was Head of Music at The Box and Director of Programming at Channel 4 during the same years she was plugging records to him.
Duration: 41 minutes
Season: 2 · Episode 7
Also available: Audio only on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Acast
What a radio plugger actually does
Jo Hart is refreshingly specific about the mechanics of radio promotion - the thing most music industry conversations gloss over. A radio plugger's job is to convince a head of music, a programme director or a specialist DJ to add a record to their playlist. You are competing against hundreds of other records for the same slot. The filter applied fastest is trust and form: whose records have been worth backing before? If someone has plugged Britney Spears and NSync and those records performed, every subsequent pitch carries that track record. "Are they more or less likely to go on to be successful?" is the question every head of music is unconsciously asking. The answer depends almost entirely on who is bringing the record.
Touring the country with Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears
Jo's accounts of working with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in their early careers are specific and instructive. She toured the country to every radio station - the old way of building radio support, region by region, relationship by relationship. Justin Timberlake went on every station that would have him. That directness and willingness to do the personal work of relationship-building - not just having it done on his behalf - is something Jo credits as part of why his career went where it did. The work was not glamorous. It was methodical. That is what radio promotion actually is.
Why regional radio is the most underrated tool for independent artists
One of the most practically useful arguments in this episode is Jo's case for regional radio. Local BBC stations, specialist stations, student radio and community radio are more accessible than national commercial stations, more willing to take risks on new artists, and more likely to form genuine ongoing relationships with artists they believe in. Major label artists crowd the national commercial stations. Independent artists who work the regional circuit intelligently are competing in a significantly less crowded space. "No point sending a pop track to a rock show," she says. The first discipline is sending the right music to the right people.
Building relationships over 36 years
The relationships Jo has built across 36 years are the asset that makes everything else possible. The heads of music at the stations she works with today started at the same time she did. They have grown together. "When you send them a track they know it's right for them," she says. That trust is not bought - it is built over years of sending the right thing and being honest when something is not right for a particular station. She still loves a lunch. "Wining and dining," she says. "It definitely still happens." The relationship is the work. The playlist is the result.
"The relationship is the work. The playlist is the result."
- Jo Hart, founder of Hart Media - On 36 years of radio promotion
"Regional radio is the most underrated tool for any independent artist. Major labels crowd the national stations. You're competing in a much less crowded space."
- Jo hart - on where independent artists should focus their radio strategy
"Justin went on every station that would have him. That willingness to do the personal work of relationship-building is part of why his career went where it did."
- Jo Hart - on working with justin timberlake
The Blinding Talent Music Industry Podcast is hosted by Mark Adams - founder of Blinding Talent and former Director of Music Programming at Channel 4. Equal parts campfire stories and practical insight, each episode is an in-depth conversation with a senior figure from across the music industry.
If this episode resonated, Blinding Talent works with independent artists across the UK and internationally - helping them do exactly what Jo describes - how radio promotion works, why relationships are the asset that matters, and why regional radio is still the most underrated route for independent artists.
From artist management with Mark Adams to digital marketing campaigns across Spotify, Meta and YouTube, everything we do is built around getting artists closer to the music industry.
Jo Hart is the founder of Hart Media, a specialist music radio promotions company she has run for 29 years. She began her career at EMI and has worked in music promotion for 36 years. Artists she has worked with include Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Usher, NSync, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Enter Shikari, Jamie Cullum and Nick Cave.
A radio plugger pitches music to radio stations and tries to convince heads of music, programme directors and specialist DJs to add tracks to their playlists. They build long-term relationships with key decision-makers at stations and use those relationships to make the case for why a particular record deserves playlist support.
Jo Hart's advice is to focus on regional radio - local BBC stations, specialist stations, student radio and community radio. These stations are more accessible than national commercial stations, more willing to take risks on new artists, and more likely to form genuine ongoing relationships. The critical first rule: only send music that is right for that specific station and show.
The Blinding Talent Music Industry Podcast is hosted by Mark Adams - founder of Blinding Talent and former Director of Music Programming at Channel 4. Guests include Jo Hart, Colin Barlow, Sol Parker, Judd Lander and many others.
