Jazz FM targets young with dance music label

Jazz FM is to launch a dance music record label called Hed Kandi in the middle of next month.

The first album on the label, aimed at 16- to 25-year-old dance music fans, is a compilation called Nu Cool 3.

The radio network, which has stations in London and Manchester, will launch a late-night show this Saturday – also called Hed Kandi – that will play the same type of music as sold on the label.

Three more compilations and original recordings are planned before the end of the year. The label will also launch a roadshow, with DJs playing dance music in fashionable bars across the country.

Jazz FM chief executive Richard Wheatly says: “There is great de-mand for this music, and it is the sort of thing that we do not offer on our other labels.”

Golden Rose, the media company which owns Jazz FM, has two other record labels: Jazz FM Records, which specialises in more traditional jazz compilations, and a joint venture with the record company Telestar, called Onion Records, which releases music by original jazz artists.

Jazz FM 102.2 in London reaches a weekly audience of 610,000, or 1.5 per cent of the capital’s radio listeners, according to first quarter results from industry tracking body the Radio Joint Audience Research (Rajar). The Manchester station has a weekly audience of 225,000 – a one per cent share.