When Beats 1 launched earlier this summer, two of the things Apple and its hosts were adamant about were that the station had no specific genre and that it was meant to be a global representation of music. Looking to investigate Apple’s success at following through with those goals, Quartz has analyzed all of the songs played on Beats 1 during a one month period from early July to early August…
The collected data shows that during that one month survey of the songs played on Beats 1, hip-hop was the most popular genre, with alternative coming in at a close second. Too much hip-hop has been a complaint regarding the station, with it seemingly being the preferred genre of the three flagship Beats 1 hosts. Electronic was the third most played genre, while R&B and pop round out the top 5, respectively.
Regarding specific artists, The Weeknd has been the most played artist on Beats 1 thus far, thanks in large part to his two major hits in “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face,” the latter of which he performed at WWDC following Apple’s unveiling of Apple Music. The second most played artist is Drake, who of course came on stage during WWDC to vouch for Apple Music and hosts his own Beats 1 show. Disclosure comes in as third most played artist, with Fetty Wap and Jamie xx finishing out the top 5.
Finally, regarding the top played songs, The Weeknd is again on top thanks to “Can’t Feel My Face.” Halsey’s track “New Americana” has been the second top played track, while Selena Gomez holds the third spot with “Good For You.”
Beats 1 has something that is rare in the world of digital music: scarcity. Listeners can’t choose a song and play it over and over. (They can do that elsewhere on Apple Music.) But curation doesn’t mean songs aren’t repeated. We counted 12,445 tracks but only 3,371 unique songs, meaning each track was played an average of 3.7 times. Eighteen of the 20 songs in the table above were played over 50 times.
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Thanks for posting these stats. Now I know for certain I’m not missing anything. My assumptions that this would just be garbage I’d never listen to has been confirmed.
You sound exactly like my childhood friend’s grandparents, who often bitched and moaned about the awful music of the 1960’s and 70’s. They simply knew that the showtunes of the 1940’s and 1950’s was the best music ever, and everything else was absolute garbage that should be burned, and the so-called “musicians” shot. The idea that the Beatles or the Carpenters or Bob Dylan could possibly out-sell Sinatra, let alone be listened to, proved the downward spiral of America into Satan’s hands.
Of course, they were stuck in their ways. They really just hated anything that wasn’t part of their own youth.
I totally disagree. I subscribe to SiriusXM radio, and I was sort of hoping that Beats 1 might be a nice alternative at a lower price. The difference is, I can actually listen to the Hits1 station on SiriusXM (Top 40 hits, etc.) They all those “newfangled” songs your friend’s grandparents would be complaining about these days. But I was looking for a different vibe from Beats 1. Someone once said that Beats 1 should feel like “walking into an independent music store”: a little dose of everything. Unfortunately, it’s simply playing mostly the same music as everyone else. Apple has a huge platform to help virtual unknowns get mainstream exposure. Instead they’re simply doling out the same stuff that’s already topping all the other charts. Like Phillip above, I was afraid I was missing something by not listening to Beats 1. Turns out I’m not. So while your rant was quite eloquently entertaining, you’re missing the point: we’re not all complaining about the “next age of music being upon us.” Some of us were just looking for something different from Apple, and we’re not getting it.
Vincent, your comment was…amazing.
Not at all. I have nothing against pop music, but the key there is the “music” part, which takes talent and instruments, something completely from a person talking over noise and sounds programmed into a machine or riffs and beats just blatantly stolen from an actual musical song but its okay because they call it “sampling” instead of just blatant theft.
Its not a matter of “old” versus “new” music, its a matter of “music” versus “sounds and noise”.
There is a difference, back in the 60’s and 70’s they relied on playing musical instruments and learning how to sing without pitch correction and they didn’t rely on drum machines, and that music still is relevant because there are people, even kids, that buying vinyl of those classic albums. ever see the spurt in vinyl sales and more and more older releases being released in new vinyl pressings and high res digital downloads? I know it’s not as popular, but being popular doesn’t mean it’s better. Look at McDonald’s, they have high school kids making food in a rigid process and they need no degree from any culinary academy and they use ingredients that’s highly suspect of not being actual beef, yet its’ the most popular hamburger. Compare that to a 3 Star Michelin restaurant. It’s not about popularity it’s about quality. If I listen to a singer, I don’t want to listen to someone that REQUIRES Autotune or Melodyne, that to me, just isn’t a real singer. Maybe some day, you’ll end up just like your parents, but you may not be able to use the music you listen to today to validate your point. You’ll have to listen to music that came from the 60’s and 70’s, that’s why they call them classics. Classics stay around longer because they are worth listening to when you get older. That’s why classical music has stayed around so long and it’s still taught and performed.
No, hated anything that was part of their youth? Not necessarily true, I listened to my parents music and some of it I still listen today. Classical music. Some jazz I’ll still listen and I will never put down a big band like Buddy Rich Big Band. His band STILL kicks ass even by today’s standards, I just have old recordings to listen, which is fine by me. Some I didn’t primarily because the recordings weren’t that good of a quality.
I suppose you’ll still be listening to most of the current stuff? Gangnam Style? N*&&^% wit a Gun? List the top 10 songs over the past year that you listen to and ask yourself, are you going to still listen to in 30 or 40 years? Most of those guys would look ridiculous on stage playing that crap. Woop, Woop. :-)
Probably because most of those people they play the most probably couldn’t get a degree in music to prove they should be recording artists in the first place. Boy has the pop music culture gone downhill. Most them can’t actually sing without the use of pitch correction, actually play a musical instrument without being edited to death on a DAW. It’s just what’s the latest fad. I they shouldn’t call this stuff POP music, they should call it FAD music. here today, gone tomorrow. I guess the more legitimate the genre (having actual formal music theory behind it) the less the kids want to listen to it. What a shame as to the state of affairs from our youth.
I couldn’t agree more. Over a 2 week period I tried my best to listen for more than a couple of songs. Couldn’t do it.
Wow. Many Mainstream. Such boring. Wow.
Well, I just continue listening to my japanese jazz and japanese classic rock music!
Hip-hop appears twice, as Hip-Hop/Rap and Hip-Hop. I’m struggling to discern the difference… But then I would, as it’s not my specialty.
That said, I did expect the curation to skew towards these most-played genres, given Apple’s acquisition of Dr Dre’s Beats Electronics and its Beats Music subsidiary – even a casual glance at the list of founders and partners (Will.i.am is one of the latter) confirms this expectation.
It will be interesting to see how things pan out or change in the months ahead, especially after the Apple Music trial period expires and subscriptions kick in.
Not my music, not my style, not my service. Thanks for posting the stats. I, too, am not missing a thing by sticking to spotify.
Beats 1 is only a radio station; Apple Music is so much more, and offers also all other genres; the radio is just something more compared with Spotify, but even if you don’t like it (I don’t like it either) you still have all the rest of the catalog with suggestions for you which are usually better than what Spotify offers.
this doesn’t make any sense. it’s like saying you don’t like your local Top 40 station so you’re sticking with your CD collection. Very different things… one is a radio station and one is a collection of 30,000,000+ songs.
To be fair though, it wasn’t immediately clear to me what the difference was when all this first went down. I knew that Apple acquired Beats, and for a short time I thought Beats One WAS the new music service. Then I realized what Apple Music was, then I was unsure what Beats One was.
This makes perfect sense. Apple Music doesn’t offer more than Spotify – in terms of collection. And I already have an abundance of playlists on Spotify – which I cannot import to Apple Music. So the – for some – added value of the radio station isn’t enough for me to switch. In addition to that – strangely as it may be – T-Mobile in Germany still only supports Spotify in it’s “Music Option”. So, with Apple Music not offering any additional benefit to me AND eating into my data, there is no incentive for switching.
Any blues, jazz, country,religious, christian, spiritual, bluegrass?
This article is about what the “Beats 1” radio station plays. Like all radio stations, it centers itself on specific genres. Think of it like a single FM (or Sirius/XM) radio station.
I don’t think anyone would listen to a single radio station that plays a broad mix of pop, blues, jazz, country, religious, christian, spiritual, and bluegrass. Instead, it focuses on what most teenagers want.
In contrast, “Apple Music” has virtually all genres, including the ones you mentioned (some which I listen to a lot, and some which I do not).
For one, I love country music (except for pop country music, of course), and I listen to a ton of it on Apple Music.
I think hat was his point. It was sold as being a variety station. Blues jazz folk metal country rock and roll classic rock indie artist… No it is a top 40s station sold to Tweens, the entire reason the music industry is dying.
Seriously? I thought Beats1 was going to help me discover new music? Nothing new or impressive here.
No Metal? That sucks, but it’s kind of alright because I’m listening to Beats 1 anyway!
I was thinking the same thing — I like pretty much all genres of music that are melodic in some way shape or form, but I mostly gear towards metal and guitar or keyboard centric riffing and soloing with great vocals — I will dig the occasional pop song, as long as it sounds melodic with good vocals…Am I out of touch with the mainstream? I guess so…oh well, their loss…
Beats 1 I’ve listened to for all of 1-2 minutes since it launched. Half the time it’s trendy, and the other half someone is talking. Meh.
Honestly as a whole, I’m not impressed with Iovine’s curation concepts and Apple’s implementation. I have such a broad swath of stuff I like, My Music is useless on any given day. I liked how Beats Music did it, tell us how you feel and what you’re doing, and we’ll play stuff you like. This is half of that, we have stuff you like even though when you’re depressed you might not want to listen to Pink Floyd now. Makes zero sense.
The quality and features of the new iTune I love, but the organization of the music, especially lack luster radio and playlists, have me searching for something else.
I wouldn’t have an issue if it wasn’t pretentiously presented as something which will just push “good music”. That would be “thinking different”. As is, it’s another example of having the blessing of the planet’s sounds at a click but choosing to bypass all that and cater to mainstream taste, which might not even be in its current form if not for programs such as this one.
I’m also a little confounded by the Quartz data, although it may literally be mirroring Beats 1. Noting the full on absence of metal or progressive rock (although rock is split up into rock, alternative, punk, and indie) and despite jazz containing iterations which clearly are not the same music from decade to decade, jazz only gets one category. “World music” is a whole other mess altogether, but I guess nobody cares.
This is meant to get people excited about music? This is 2015, if you’re still gonna go half-assed with the arts, just don’t even bother.
I’m not one for too many radio stations (for instance, I think SiriusXM could cover the same genres with fewer radio stations), but I think it would benefit them to maybe separate the hip-hop/rap and alternative/rock. Then again, someone else mentioned this is what teenagers like, and maybe they don’t differentiate, so maybe this station shouldn’t either.
That’s a really awkward high-five.
Rap Artist if all you rap about is Harming People, Degrading People, Abusing Drugs, Materialization and/or Living a low life. You’re not an artist. You’re whining & selfish and that is all you’re going to attract in to yours’ and your listeners’ life. What we all say in our heads echoes back to us in life. Peace, Love and Prosperity. Redefine, Redefine, Human.
Ok so it wasn’t just me. Every damn song is rap/hip hop GARBAGE. 1 radio station DOES NOT WORK. The more I use Apple Music.. the more I know I wont be paying for it. I try and check out Beats 1… but every time.. same old thing. Rap and Hip Hop and THE WORLD PREMIER OF THE PHARMACY! really? You are shocked that Dr Dre released a new album (a terrible one at that) on BEATS 1?… Pathetic.
I’m 51. Not their target market. But I decided to be open-minded and really TRY Beats1. I like it, like it a lot, but my one issue with it this chart makes obvious: there’s WAY too much rap/hip hop. One of my favorite shows is ABSTRACT RADIO, so don’t play the racist old fogie card. There’s simply too much of it. If kids won’t listen to a station with less ‘beats’ than this, I get it. But I highly doubt it.