LOOSE — Mark Freeman ☻ Creative & Strategy Leader

Loose - or “LOOSE FM” as it’s affectionately known, thanks to it’s URL - is a deeply rewarding project for me: a London-based online radio community with a global network of over 400 contributors, DJs and producers centred in London, and heard around the world at peak times by 10,000 unique cross platform listeners a month.

I set Loose up in 2021 as a post-pandemic side-hustle, scratching an itch to build my own brand and cultural platform, and since then the community has blossomed and the brand has cemented itself as a loved, respected and vital mouthpiece, led by its “triple X” ethos: ECLECTIC, EXPERIMENTAL, ECSTATIC. We’re open-mindedly, culturally post-genre. We are here to champion new sounds, new ideas, new people. We believe joy and euphoria are values worth fighting for.

These guiding principles help us nurture the community, grow our platform, attract like-minded people and maintain our uniqueness.

Selection of show graphics from our archive. Check out our Instagram for the whole picture.

What we’ve built so far

Broadcast our stream online 24/7 from loose.fm non-stop for over 1000 days
Reached 10,000 cross-platform monthly listeners a month (stream + listen-backs)
Amassed 6,200+ Instagram followers organically, with zero paid marketing, all qualified (we qualify each new follower and block bots)
Streamed over 2500 new shows, all exclusive, all archived, most of them 2 hours+
Given a platform to over 400 DJs & Producers from the UK and around the world
Gathered a community of DJs and creators in London around our studio including some emerging names in the UK scene such as Make A Dance, Kousto, Minna, Josh FB, Anja Ngozi, CLBRKS, Dylantheinfamous, Sugarloaf, Leandro Fidelis and more
Hosted established global names at the studio such as Laurence Guy, Elado, Leo Zero and Louis Culture
Broadcast exclusive shows from worldwide names such as Django Django, Rolando, Stevie Kotey, Norm Talley, The Patchouli Brothers, Whodamanny, Orlando Voorn, Mr. Ho, Danger Boys and Akasha System
Developed a worldwide following and strong community support in Paris, Madrid, Naples, Kyiv, Detroit, Buenos Aires, Mexico City & Guatemala City
Promoted a series of successful events, including 1 sell out night at 25 Paul Street, 3 free co-branded parties (Choose Love/2 x Mikkeller Brewery) and a run of remote broadcasts from parties around the UK and Europe
Raised £10k (donations and equipment combined) on a crowdfund entitled LOOSE CHANGE to help us move to a new studio (project ongoing)

A selection of Loose party promo materials

What we’ll do next

Our mission for Loose is to bring eclectic, experimental, ecstatic sound & culture to the world at large to unlock more opportunities for the creators in our community to create on multiple platforms.

We (the Loose team - currently 4 of us, headed by myself) have a plan that reimagines how culture can thrive, engaging our community in monetised projects for mutual benefit between business and creators.

We are building a new studio for Loose at an exciting cultural and creative hub in London, where we can put this coalescing union at the intersection of community, culture and commerce into practice. Watch this space!