About Get Known Radio

Get Known Radio is a one-person, listener-supported internet radio station built around a single editorial idea: most of the best new hip-hop, electronic, and R&B never reaches the playlists that decide what gets heard. We exist to put that music on air anyway.

What we play

The station broadcasts a continuous, hand-curated mix of hip-hop, R&B, club-leaning electronic, and the genre-blurring records that sit between them. Our daily rotation is roughly:

• ~60% independent and unsigned artists — submitted directly through our portal or pulled from artist-run releases on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and DistroKid feeds.
• ~25% recent major-label releases that fit the station's editorial taste — verified through iTunes' new-release feeds and our own listening.
• ~15% archival cuts, deep catalog, regional scene history, and producer mixes — context for the new stuff.

Every track that goes on the rotation is reviewed by a human before it airs. We do not auto-add submissions, and we do not run a generative or randomized playlist.

How tracks are chosen

We get more submissions than we can play. Here is how we make decisions, in plain language:

1. Listening pass. Every submission gets a minimum 60-second listen. Most tracks are listened to in full at least once.
2. Mix check. Tracks need to survive being played between professionally-mixed records without a noticeable drop in fidelity. We do not require pristine masters — just listenable ones.
3. Editorial fit. If it would feel out of place between the records we already love, it does not go on. That is not a quality judgment — it is a programming one.
4. Rights check. We confirm the submitter has the right to license the track to us before it enters rotation. Tracks with sample-clearance ambiguity stay off air.

Artists who are not added to rotation are still kept on file, and we revisit our archive when programming themed blocks.

The editorial side

Beyond the stream, the site publishes a daily news archive that aggregates headlines from the hip-hop and R&B press (XXL, Rap-Up, HotNewHipHop and others) alongside our own short-form commentary. We do not republish full articles — every linked story sends readers directly to the publisher who reported it. The aggregation exists because no single source covers the genres we care about completely, and because our listeners asked for one place to keep up.

Our own original writing — release reviews, artist spotlights, and short essays on the genre's economics — is published under the "Reviews" and "Features" sections of the site. These pieces are written by the station's editor and are not generated, syndicated, or sponsored.

Who runs the station

Get Known Radio is run by a single editor, working out of New York with collaborators in Detroit and London who help with weekend programming and tour coverage. The station is not affiliated with a label, a publishing house, a streaming service, or an advertising network. We are not a promotional service — paid placement does not exist on this station, and no one can buy their way onto the rotation.

If you need to reach the editor directly, the contact page lists email and submission addresses. We respond to submissions within roughly two weeks, and to press and licensing requests within a few business days.

Why we built it

Streaming services made it easier than ever to release music and harder than ever to be discovered. Algorithmic playlists reward records that already have momentum, which means new artists with no marketing budget rarely reach the listeners who would actually like them. We started Get Known Radio because we believed a 24/7 human-curated stream — paired with editorial coverage and a public submission system — could give a small slice of that discovery problem a different answer. We are still working on it.

How the site works

The site is built as a single-page web application that loads the live audio stream and all of the editorial content through your browser. The stream itself is delivered by a Shoutcast endpoint and plays directly in the page; you do not need an app. Track previews on the new-releases page use Apple's iTunes preview API, which provides 30-second clips. No listener data is sold to third parties — see the privacy policy for full detail.

Submitting music

Artists can submit a track through our submission portal. Submissions are free. We ask for a streaming-quality file (MP3 320kbps or WAV), the rights confirmation described above, and a couple of paragraphs about the record. We do not ask for payment, social-media follows, or playlist exchanges. If we add the track to rotation, we will let you know by email and tag the release on our new-releases page.

Contact

General mail: [email protected]
Submissions inbox: [email protected]
Removals and corrections: contact form