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NTS Radio
NTS Radio (also known as NTS Live or simply NTS) is a music radio platform which was founded in 2011 in Hackney, East London by Femi Adeyemi "for an international community of music lovers". The platform prioritizes showcasing niche artists in its radio programming and live events. NTS Radio's tagline is "Don't Assume".
In 2023 The Times described NTS as “The greatest radio station ever. It’s music. All music. It has the best country and western show, the most eclectic jazz programming, it has grime, it has techno, it has rap, folk, death metal, psychedelia, retro Japanese pop. If it spies a gap it seeks to cover it. And every show can be streamed online.” The Guardian has described NTS as "redefining radio" and The New Yorker described it as a radio "which reshaped how musicians and fans around the world saw and heard one another".
In 2024, The New York Times reported that the station had an average of 360,000 daily listeners during March of that year. The same article reported that "around 40 percent of the music played on NTS is not available on Spotify". In the same year, The London Standard reported that NTS had over 3 million unique monthly listeners.
The name NTS is an abbreviation for 'Nuts To Soup', which was the name of a previous blog run by Adeyemi. Adeyemi, who had also been involved in founding Boiler Room, started NTS on a budget of £5,000, inspired by his love of pirate radio, MTV2, US college radio stations like WFMU and the creative community around London nightclub Plastic People (where he met NTS CEO Sean McAuliffe who was a resident DJ at Plastic People). In 2013 Adeyemi and McAuliffe incorporated the company NTS Live Ltd together and soon after employed its first employees Shane Connelly, Fergus McDonald, Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura and Padraigh Perkins Edge who had been working as volunteers.
In a 2024 interview with The London Standard, Adeyemi mentioned that after having taught himself how to stream, he placed posters around London reading 'independent radio station in London'. He went on to say, "I thought I'd probably get around 10 to 15 people reply but there were almost 60 people. I realised 'wow there's some legs in this'".
In an interview with Music Business Worldwide in 2020, Adeyemi speaks of starting NTS as a response to a homogenous radio climate; "Pirate radio stations were laser focused on specific sounds and the mainstream radio stations the same... there are so many different tastes in London, why don't we just set up this thing that plays everything? Let's keep it as diverse as possible."
In the same Music Business Worldwide interview from 2020, McAuliffe says "From a curatorial point of view, the global community of artists and record collectors involved in NTS is nuts. They make NTS what it is. We don’t chase numbers. We’re just passionate about the music and artists we love and we let the music do the talking…we’re not like traditional radio where hosts may be told what to play. All of that is out the window. NTS is all about total freedom of expression".
According to the Financial Times, part of NTS's "success is down to the quality and underground nature of its DJs and live performances". Across NTS two live channels, there are currently over 700 resident artists, music producers, DJs and record collectors globally that make up the regular shows on the platform, most of whom own share options in the company. Regular hosts have ranged from the likes of Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley to The XX's Jamie xx, Yellow Magic Orchestra's Haruomi Hosono, Ethel Cain, Clairo, Yaeji, rapper Zack Fox, Show Me the Body, Theo Parrish, Moxie, Jim O'Rourke, Oneohtrix Point Never, Four Tet, Mark Leckey, Floating Points, artist Martine Syms, Eclair Fifi, Kelsey Lu, Erol Alkan, Moor Mother, Fenriz, Coby Sey, Smithsonian Folkways, The Numero Group, jazz musician Angel Bat Dawid, and Andrew Weatherall. The NTS breakfast show (broadcast from their London studios) was called The Do!! You!!! Breakfast Show and was presented by Charlie Bones up until August 2021. Bones was often joined by guest hosts and performers. Bones' slot was initially filled by a rotating selection of guest hosts, before the station overhauled their morning schedule. As of January 2024, Flo Dill and Louise Chen are the resident breakfast hosts.
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NTS Radio
NTS Radio (also known as NTS Live or simply NTS) is a music radio platform which was founded in 2011 in Hackney, East London by Femi Adeyemi "for an international community of music lovers". The platform prioritizes showcasing niche artists in its radio programming and live events. NTS Radio's tagline is "Don't Assume".
In 2023 The Times described NTS as “The greatest radio station ever. It’s music. All music. It has the best country and western show, the most eclectic jazz programming, it has grime, it has techno, it has rap, folk, death metal, psychedelia, retro Japanese pop. If it spies a gap it seeks to cover it. And every show can be streamed online.” The Guardian has described NTS as "redefining radio" and The New Yorker described it as a radio "which reshaped how musicians and fans around the world saw and heard one another".
In 2024, The New York Times reported that the station had an average of 360,000 daily listeners during March of that year. The same article reported that "around 40 percent of the music played on NTS is not available on Spotify". In the same year, The London Standard reported that NTS had over 3 million unique monthly listeners.
The name NTS is an abbreviation for 'Nuts To Soup', which was the name of a previous blog run by Adeyemi. Adeyemi, who had also been involved in founding Boiler Room, started NTS on a budget of £5,000, inspired by his love of pirate radio, MTV2, US college radio stations like WFMU and the creative community around London nightclub Plastic People (where he met NTS CEO Sean McAuliffe who was a resident DJ at Plastic People). In 2013 Adeyemi and McAuliffe incorporated the company NTS Live Ltd together and soon after employed its first employees Shane Connelly, Fergus McDonald, Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura and Padraigh Perkins Edge who had been working as volunteers.
In a 2024 interview with The London Standard, Adeyemi mentioned that after having taught himself how to stream, he placed posters around London reading 'independent radio station in London'. He went on to say, "I thought I'd probably get around 10 to 15 people reply but there were almost 60 people. I realised 'wow there's some legs in this'".
In an interview with Music Business Worldwide in 2020, Adeyemi speaks of starting NTS as a response to a homogenous radio climate; "Pirate radio stations were laser focused on specific sounds and the mainstream radio stations the same... there are so many different tastes in London, why don't we just set up this thing that plays everything? Let's keep it as diverse as possible."
In the same Music Business Worldwide interview from 2020, McAuliffe says "From a curatorial point of view, the global community of artists and record collectors involved in NTS is nuts. They make NTS what it is. We don’t chase numbers. We’re just passionate about the music and artists we love and we let the music do the talking…we’re not like traditional radio where hosts may be told what to play. All of that is out the window. NTS is all about total freedom of expression".
According to the Financial Times, part of NTS's "success is down to the quality and underground nature of its DJs and live performances". Across NTS two live channels, there are currently over 700 resident artists, music producers, DJs and record collectors globally that make up the regular shows on the platform, most of whom own share options in the company. Regular hosts have ranged from the likes of Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley to The XX's Jamie xx, Yellow Magic Orchestra's Haruomi Hosono, Ethel Cain, Clairo, Yaeji, rapper Zack Fox, Show Me the Body, Theo Parrish, Moxie, Jim O'Rourke, Oneohtrix Point Never, Four Tet, Mark Leckey, Floating Points, artist Martine Syms, Eclair Fifi, Kelsey Lu, Erol Alkan, Moor Mother, Fenriz, Coby Sey, Smithsonian Folkways, The Numero Group, jazz musician Angel Bat Dawid, and Andrew Weatherall. The NTS breakfast show (broadcast from their London studios) was called The Do!! You!!! Breakfast Show and was presented by Charlie Bones up until August 2021. Bones was often joined by guest hosts and performers. Bones' slot was initially filled by a rotating selection of guest hosts, before the station overhauled their morning schedule. As of January 2024, Flo Dill and Louise Chen are the resident breakfast hosts.