“DJ Zane Lowe has admitted he’s unsure if Apple Music needs the digital radio station Beats 1 as the enterprise is so new, although he hopes ‘there’s a place for it,'” Rhiannon Williams reports for The Telegraph.
“Speaking at the Radio Festival 2015 in London, Lowe was in conversation with his former boss, Ben Cooper, controller of Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra,” Williams reports. “When asked by Cooper if Apple Music, the Californian tech company’s streaming service, needed its digital radio branch Beats 1, Lowe replied: ‘I’m not sure it does. We’re working this out, time will tell… We’ve been going three months, I don’t have the answers. I hope that there’s a place for it… This is in progress, and over time we’ll find out exactly why [it’s needed].'”
Williams reports, “New Zealander Lowe was announced as one of Apple Music’s digital radio service Beats 1’s three in-residence DJs, alongside Julie Adenuga in London and Ebro Darden in New York in June. Lowe left Radio 1 after more than a decade to relocate to Los Angeles with his family.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Beats 1 exists to provide a unique feature to Apple’s overall music efforts and to impart a just-out-of-the-mainstream edge to Apple and Apple Music. It’s marketing and branding positioning. It’s music discovery. It’s a living, breathing statement about Apple’s commitment to and love of music. It’s a vibe. It’s young and edgy without being too dangerous. It’s a genius reinvention/modernization of “radio.” It’s pure Apple.
Beats 1 is not a necessity, but it’s inexpensive with the added benefit of actually being good. Beats 1 is the result of a very successful experiment and is obviously well worth continuing for all of the positives it exudes.