“Perhaps the greatest surprise of Apple Music’s first weeks has been the near-universal praise that its Beats 1 radio station has received, not just for its impressive battery of exclusives — interviews, premieres or regular shows from Dr. Dre, Drake, Pharrell, Disclosure, St. Vincent, Eminem, Elton John and many more — but also for its adventurous and ambitious programming,” Jem Aswad reports for Billboard.
“The station is a fusion of old-school and futurism that reminds some of college radio, some of the BBC and some of the halcyon early days of FM,” Aswad reports. “At its helm stands Zane Lowe, 41, the effusive, hyper-verbal, New Zealand-born former tastemaker-in-chief for the BBC’s Radio 1, who, as Beats 1’s ‘special creative and lead anchor,’ is charged with programming the station, which so far has been exciting, chaotic, attention-grabbing and unpredictable… apparently just the way his bosses (low-key, retiring people with surnames like Iovine, Reznor and Cue) want it — and so far, so do listeners.”
What we’re working toward is this one place where people can go to [the] ‘For You’ [feature] and be fed these wonderful handmade playlists according to their tastes, go to Beats 1 and have a shared listening experience and then go to ‘Connect’ and get close to the artists. The whole thing should work symbiotically. Also, we’re a broadcasting platform on a music service, so when people hear something they like, the idea is they’ll go deep: go into the music service, learn more, listen to the albums. That’s really important. — Zane Lowe
Much more in the full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: Beats 1 certainly has been a revelation that deserved reevaluation. We initially glossed over it when it was revealed – “that’s nice” – but, after listening to Beats 1 hit the “air” from the first second, after the first hour so, we said, “Whoa! This is actually going to be something interesting” and we’ve been back every day since.
Here’s to Beats 2, Beats 3, Beats 4, Beats 5, and beyond!
SEE ALSO:
How Beats 1 can take on SiriusXM: What if Beats 1 was the start of a whole radio network? – July 13, 2015
The surprising genius of Apple’s Beats 1 radio – July 6, 2015
Why Apple’s Beats 1 will change the game – July 6, 2015
Why Apple’s Beats 1 is genius – July 1, 2015
Apple’s Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe: ‘Into the unknown we go’ – July 1, 2015
AccuRadio CEO: Apple Music’s Beats 1 won’t garner a huge audience – June 30, 2015
Apple’s Beats 1 starts broadcasting – June 30, 2015
Won’t be Beats 2, 3, etc. will be genres: Beats 1, Country 1, Classical 1, etc.
Many can’t see it yet but Beats 1 is the most compelling offering of Apple Music. It is a big deal and they are pulling it off with style that no one else on the planet can replicate. It’s the one service that Apple is doing very right (as opposed to all the other recent face-plants).
Absolutely right. Beats 1 is by far the best part of Apple Music. I’ve given up trying to make the rest of Apple Music work right so just enjoy the tunes served up by Beats 1. Except the rap. I turn it off when they play the women hating, gangster thug music. Off to my music library then.
Good thing Beats 1 is part of Apple’s free service.
Absolutely right. Beats 1 is by far the best part of Apple Music. I’ve given up trying to make the rest of Apple Music work right so just enjoy the tunes served up by Beats 1. Except the rap. I turn it off when they play the women hating, gangster thug music. Off to my music library then.
One station? Fuck that.
That would be like making one size of shoe for everybody.
The thing may be hipster bait, but then they are all broke. Maybe that is why they want to rent their music.
As Zane is from the BBC and BBC1 is exactly like Beats1, I’d expect Beats 2, 3, 4, 5 to follow a similar model.
BBC2 in the UK is aimed at people who used to listen to BBC1 5, 10, 15 years ago, and plays and large mix of 70s, 80s, 90s & 00s music, with the odd new popular track.
BBC3 is classical, BBC4 is news, BBC5 is sport, BBC6 is indie music.
I’m not saying that Beats will follow that exactly, but BBCs model effectively covers every age group across it’s stations.