Picture: Apple
June 30, 2015: Apple launches 24/7 radio station Beats 1. A part of Apple Music, Beats 1 options prime DJs starting from former BBC presenter Zane Lowe to prime musical artists like Lil Wayne.
Apple calls Beats 1 “the most important radio station on the earth” and says it beats (no pun meant) all different music stations relating to concurrent listeners. Nevertheless, with out onerous figures to again that up, some name out Cupertino on this declare.
Beats 1 launch brings 24/7 dwell music to Apple followers
As its identify suggests, the origin of Beats 1 could be traced again to Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats in 2014. This gave Apple the music-themed model and tech with which it began constructing the idea for Apple Music. Nevertheless, Zane Lowe — one of many first Beats 1 DJs — stated the time-frame for creating Beats 1 proved extremely tight. The crew, he stated in interviews through the years, had simply three months to “construct Beats 1 from scratch.”
In contrast to Apple Music, Beats 1 required no subscription to hearken to. In idea, this opened it up to an enormous viewers, even when Apple by no means revealed the precise variety of listeners. In 2020, Cupertino modified the station’s identify to Apple Music 1 and launched two different radio stations: Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Nation. The three stations stay free for individuals who don’t subscribe to Apple Music.
Free dwell radio on Apple Music
Lowe stated early on that he was “unsure” how important Beats 1 was to the general Apple Music expertise — though he hoped “there’s a spot for it.” Within the years because the Beats 1 launch, Apple’s predominant radio station has continued to garner big-name interviews and superstar hosts, significantly within the hip-hop world. (Lowe nonetheless hosts The Zane Lowe Present.)
Unusually, Apple does comparatively little to advertise its radio stations. And the deal with them as a key differentiator for Apple Music appears to have gone the best way of the streaming service’s controversial early deal with exclusives.
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