Want to know what music you’re going to be hearing all over the airwaves next year? Well, the by-now well respected BBC Sound Of 2012 poll has been released.

The longlist is normally released ahead of the final Top 5 in January. Looking through the 15 artists listed here, there’s a fair mix of acts who’ve been bubbling under for a while and fresh faces that we’ve yet to discover. We’ve already been hearing about Dot Rotten, Skrillex and Dry The River, while Lianne La Havas and Ren Harvieu are yet to be discovered.

What we’ve decided to do today is give you a brief look at each act on the Sound of 2012 list and give you a bunch of links to help you discover their music. Sound fair? Let’s go…

• A$AP Rocky – The 23 year old Harlem-born rapper is better known as Rakim Mayers. Notable for his gold grilled teeth and swag-laden rhymes, you’ll want to check out Purple Swag to get a taster, then browse his YouTube channel for more. Peso‘s also worth a listen.
• Azealia Banks – Banks is a 20 year old rapper/singer from Harlem, New York. Heavily explicit, but lyrically brilliant material like 212 and L8R will shock the pants off you while bringing a sneaky smile to your face. Check out her SoundCloud page for more tunes. Wanna watch Azealia in action? Try her YouTube.
• Dot Rotten – The grime MC whose name is based on an old lady from EastEnders has been on the scene for years, but he’s amassed some cutting social commentary on his tracks. Check out I Want To Annoy and much more on Rotten’s YouTube. Worth paying a visit to his MySpace as well.
• Dry The River
• Flux Pavilion – Dubstep producer Joshua Steele, otherwise known as Flux Pavilion. Face Cannon pretty much says it all – an eardrum-demolishing audio assault. Wanna hear more? Check out the SoundCloud page.
• Frank Ocean
• Friends – A band of chums from Brooklyn who sort of fell together thanks to the notorious New York bedbug infestation. Fronted by Samantha Urbani, Friends have a distinctive funk-pop sound that’s heavily driven by bass and drums. Listen to I’m His Girl.
• Jamie N Commons
• Lianne La Havas – This list wouldn’t have been complete without at least one British-born singer-songwriter on it, and London-born La Havas follows perfectly in the footsteps of Corinne Bailey Rae with sweet, melodic compositions. Check out No Room For Doubt and her Live From L.A. set on SoundCloud. The YouTube page is sinfully low on material.
• Michael Kiwanuka – A remarkably good companion for Lianne La Havas, Kiwanuka displays a mature soulfulness in his tunes that mirrors his fellow Londoner. There’s a soothing retro sound on tracks like Home Again that doesn’t feel like it would be commercial in today’s market, but by the same token his songs fit like well worn classics. More on YouTube.
• Niki & The Dove
• Ren Harvieu – Described by The Guardian as “the missing link between Shirley Bassey and Adele”, Harvieu is a tender 20 years old and from Lancashire – despite that exotic surname! Through The Night reminds me more of that mellow gold that Zero 7 have been known to produce. Recommend you check out her YouTube channel for more.
• Skrillex – Known to his mother as Sonny Moore, Skrillex is an L.A. based producer who’s being raised as one of the poster boys for the dubstep movement. His music feels more like robotic death metal to me, full of heavy beats and gutteral electronic growls. Kind of like a Transformers orgy. Check out First Of The Year (Equinox) on top volume and browse his YouTube and SoundCloud pages for more brilliance.
• Spector
• Stooshe – Meet Courtney, Alex and Karis who by this time next year could be Spice Girls 2.0. And I don’t mean that in bad way, either. These girls have all the attitude with a healthy dose of tomboyish, urban fun on the side. Colourful, obnoxious and brilliant. Sadly there’s only Betty Was Gone to go on, but based on the hip-hop beats and in your face lyrics, they’re one to look forward to!

According to Gigwise, qualifying acts must not have had a Top 20 album or single in the UK charts as of 14th November 2010. Skrillex, notably, was nominated for three Grammys in 2011 th0ugh!

Note: Yes, I’ve hit the publish button before finishing the list. It’s a work in progress. Stick with me and we’ll have all the links up shortly.