Jeff Smith is head of music at BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music. A 25-year veteran of the industry, he has been head of music at Radio 1, director of music programming at Napster and controller of Capital Radio. He is responsible for what makes it onto the stations’ playlists, heard by more than 15 million listeners every day. In this in-depth interview, he looks back at the highlights of his career, explains why he thinks the BBC is uniquely placed to break new music, and reveals how he came up with the idea for Radio 1’s popular Live Lounge.