Beam Zoe Ball to your Beemer: BBC Sounds is coming to BMW and MINIs in the UK

LovabledanielsDecember 18, 202473 Views

BBC Sounds now integrates with BMW and MINI cars
Selected models only and v9 of your car OS is required
You’ll also need a subscription

What’s the one upgrade that would make every BMW better? No, not working indicators – it’s BBC Sounds!

The BBC’s radio and podcast app is coming to over 50,000 UK drivers thanks to a tie-up with BMW and MINI. They’re the first car brands to integrate the app with their in-car audio systems. The feature is coming to selected models first and then rolling out more widely in the near future: BMW expects 150,000 drivers to have it by the end of 2025.

Before now, listening to BBC Sounds in any car meant doing it via Android Auto, Apple CarPlay or in my ageing clunker, a third party Bluetooth dongle. But for BMW or MINI owners with version 9 of their car’s operating system, the app is now right there on the dash.

There is, however, a catch.

What you need for BBC Sounds in your BMW or MINI

To use the app, you’ll also need to be a subscriber to BMW Digital Premium or the MINI Connected Package. That’s not a BBC requirement, because of course BBC Sounds is a free app for licence payers and its content is free too. It’s because those subscriptions give you the data package you need to get the audio when you’re on the move.

The app works best if you sign in with your BBC account, because then you get the benefit of account synchronisation across multiple devices – so if you were listening to a podcast in the phone app on the train it would pick up from where you left off when you got in your car.

If you like the sound of that, here are the cars the app currently works with.

BMW 1 Series (2024 onwards)
BMW 2 Series Gran Coupé (2025 onwards)
BMW 2 Series Active Tourer (2024 onwards)
BMW X1/iX1 (2023 onwards)
BMW X2/iX2 (2024 onwards)
BMW X3 (2024 onwards)
All MINI models (2024 onwards)

And of course, if you don’t have a BMW or MINI, or if your car isn’t one of the currently compatible models, the BBC Sounds app is available in both the Google and Apple app stores.