In a new interview with Billboard, Beats 1 head anchor and “special creative” Zane Lowe has shared some new information and backstory regarding Apple’s (almost) always-on radio station and streaming music service. In the interview, Lowe discusses the motives behind playing the music he plays on his show, as well as some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of being in charge of the entirety of Beats 1.
Earlier this week, data emerged showing that, as any listener will quickly notice, hip-hop is the most played genre on Beats 1, leading some to wonder if it was specifically being pushed by Lowe and other Beats 1 hosts. Lowe explained that there’s no specific genres that he is pushing, noting that he’s not a fan of breaking down how much a specific genre or artist gets played:
We’ve played country music, Mexican house music, South American EDM, German hip-hop. I’ve never been a fan of, “We’ve got to get 22 percent of rock, 17 percent of R&B; where’s our 16 percent of hip-hop and our 9 percent of country?” If you do it that way, you’re not basing it on the merit of the music. You’re basing it on some kind of obligation.
Lowe also explained that the personality of Beats 1 is still developing and will continue to do so for some time. The former BBC 1 anchor pointed out that he, along with his other hosts, have been working diligently to make sure every song fits together on station and that people don’t get bored of what’s played. Lowe also teased that Apple is working on a replay service and to get a complete on-demand solution available.
After the first week, it was really exciting to hear how it all fit together, but also at times it was jarring. For instance, we would come out of big shows by Q-Tip or Disclosure, and the first song was really slow — you’re immediately losing the impact you’ve gained from the previous song. So we made some changes. We also noticed in the first week people listened for really long amounts of time, which meant songs got tired quickly, so we revised our rotations. And we’re working on a replay service and we want to get full on-demand ready.
One interesting tidbit to come from the interview centers around the first time Lowe met Dr. Dre. Lowe explained that while he was in Los Angeles for The Grammys, Jimmy Iovine held a meeting at his home to discuss Apple Music and lay the groundwork for Beats 1. At the meeting were Iovine, Eddy Cue, iTunes VP Robert Kondrk, Trent Reznor, and Dre:
I’d never met him until I started having conversations with Jimmy and Trent [Reznor] about coming to Los Angeles. I was out here on Grammy weekend, and there was a meeting at Jimmy’s house. That was the moment where we laid out, initially at least, what we were hoping to achieve with Beats 1. It was a double whammy, because I was in the same room as Jimmy and [Apple senior vp Internet software and services] Eddy Cue and [vp iTunes content] Robert Kondrk, who I was meeting for the first time, and Trent. I’m trying to concentrate on saying the right things to get my point across and not stumble too hard, and at the same time I’m having these out-of-body experiences here and there, like “Dr. Dre, f—!” Which I’m sure he’s used to seeing, but I was just trying to keep my game face on.
Furthermore, Lowe explained that Apple is still working hard to get all the pieces of its streaming music service to click. One area in which its working especially hard is the “For You” feature:
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.
You can read the full interview on Billboard’s website here. Over the last few weeks, Jimmy Iovine has also given two separate interviews and talked Beats 1, Apple Music, and Taylor Swift.
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Well, unfortunately, Beats 1 is just focusing on categories of current POP culture. There’s a whole lot more to “music” than the current pop culture. Heck, most of the current pop genres lack music theory and they are more marketing terms for commercialized/popular music that they can sell and market to kids that haven’t studied music on a more formal level. Oh well, I don’t care what’s current as most of it is fad music that simply lasts long enough until the next popular release comes out. How long does the average popular hit song stay on the charts? a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months. Remember that PSY song Gingham Style they now made into a commercial? How many people actually listen to that song anymore? Once they made into a commercial, the clubs stopped playing it. Oh well, I’m way past buying into the fad popular music culture, it typically lacks substance. Kids will be kids, until they cease to be kids.
I disagree to an extent. I feel that Zane, Ebro and Julie play some rather eclectic tunes but if you’ve ever listened to shows from Q-Tip, Pharrell and WRTJ you’ll hear some incredibly classic stuff. Then you have Disclosure, Elton John and Jaden Smith who all have some incredibly differing musical tastes.
While the Apple Music app has its issues Beats 1 Radio is the clear star of the show and with talk of another Beats radio station and the possibly of TV curation they have nowhere to go but up.
Turned on Beats 1 just after leaving this comment. Q-Tip’s “Abstract Radio” show is playing and as I turn it on smooth jazz artist Ronny Jordan’s “So What!” is playing followed by a song from the SuperFly soundtrack followed by a rather obscure hip-hop artist by the name of Troy Ave.
I’m dating myself but I for one was smiling from ear-to-ear because I used to rock Ronny Jordan’s album “The Antidote” in the early 90’s. Ronny Jordan is by no means in the mainstream or trendy.
Probably helps that Kid Capri was guest DJing but it’s proof that Beats 1 isn’t just focused on UK hip-hop and NYC borough-based rap. There’s plenty for everyone and frankly there’s stuff I’ve heard on Beats 1 that I would’ve never heard otherwise along with some stuff I forgot about, like Ronny Jordan.
The only person you mentioned that I respect for what they have put on the market is Elton John, but I don’t really buy his albums since I’ve heard all of his best work since it first hit the market and I don’t really feel the need to collect his catalog. I’ve already heard it. The rest simply don’t interest me since I don’t respect any of their own work. Sorry.
To Rich Davis: So what are you trying to convince me of? That your music tastes are better than everyone else and that Apple should stop trying to cater to the majority market by playing — gasp!! — popular music?!!
I love music but unlike you I’m not a music snob who turns his nose up to today’s music just because I don’t agree with all of it. Not EVERY piece of popular music is garbage. Some of it is actually good but like any industry it will produce what people respond to. It’s why the Fast and the Furious franchise continue to spawn sequels: if people keep lining up to see them there’s no reason to stop just because others are experiencing NOS fatigue.
But I take it you’re over the age of 35 and in your mind the music of today doesn’t match up to the tunes of yesteryear. Yet EVERY generation of kids had “their music” that the older generation didn’t approve of. Remember, you were a kid once and just as 40- and 50-something’s of today I’m sure the current generation will one day romanticize today’s music as genre-defining. They’ll look back on Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and Disclosure with the same fondness that you view Elton John and other artists/bands like Queen, Earth Wind & Fire, The Beatles, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Chicago, Talking Heads and others.
But to each his own. Clearly you’re not the market Beats 1 is going after but for every get-off-outta-my-yard music hater like yourself there’s a million gimmie-more-One-Direction-and-Skrillex listeners who are tuning into Beats 1 and having a great time (though I continue to contend that they actually play a great mix of current, old and obscure).
As for me, I love almost all of it and see music as an art form. And like every art form there’s Rembrandt’s and there’s clip art. Everyone expresses themselves in different ways. Some we like, others we don’t but to group everyone with a differing opinion than yours makes your voice cranky and out-of-touch.
Now, allow me to return to Apple Music/iTunes as I mix together Beck, Dr. Dre, Estelle, Netsky, Darius, Incognito, David Holmes, Outkast, Mute Math, Bring Me the Horizon, Camp Lo, Lost Midas, Lianne La Havas, Jill Scott, Jamie Cullum, Kendrick Lamar, Janelle Monáe, Tame Impala and Neil Richardson. Oh yeah, and Ronny Jordan.
Cheers!
An observation. I think I know why Apple’s doing what they are doing and I’m not really 100% behind it, even though I buy Apple products and love them, I’m not exactly behind how they promote what these guys consider music.
Apple is a computer company that makes both desktop and mobile computing devices, since their products are widely used in music production, I think they like getting people and promoting people that create music that’s more computer/virtual instrument/virtual musician/production based rather than performance based where a musician is actually playing a real instrument that has actually studied music.
I lean more towards the purist side when it comes to music since I have taken many lessons on how to play an instrument that doesn’t use a computer. Yeah, i know keyboard/piano players have been using computers/ and synthesizers to create new sounds and some will play a virtual instrument rather than having to drag out the real instrument due to cost, amount of space, etc. Yeah, I get it. Some play a sampled/virtual piano instead of playing real piano. The thing is as soon as you sample a real instrument you lose a lot of aspects of that real instrument and the virtual instrument sounds phony. Most pianists know this. To a pianist, there really is no substitute for a real grand piano, plenty of the world class classical and jazz pianists simply laugh when you mention a sampled grand piano, it doesn’t have the same level of sensitivity, timbre, feel and the expression is just lost, so you won’t find too many of those purists even touching a virtual grand piano for concert work, some will use a virtual piano if they simply have to rely on keyboards due to the costs associated with it, but to use a virtual grand piano on a recording instead of a virtual one is just a joke in the studio, same goes with Rhodes, Clavinet, B-3, etc. Creating a new sound from a synthesizer to play? No problem, guys like Jan Hammer, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, etc. have proven that you can be a world class musical and use a synthesizer and create fabulous music.
Now, drums and percussion? Sorry, I can’t stand 99% of the sequenced drums/percussion based music. It’s just trash for the most part. I would rather see a world class drummer or percussionist play than to listen to some sorry excuse create beats on a sequencer or using a drum machine. I think people shouldn’t even touch a computer to replace a drummer, that’s just wrong and you are essentially taking out the heart soul of the rhythm by using a computer to do what a trained and experienced musician can do. There isn’t a single drum programmer than can replace someone like a famous drummer or percussionist. That’s impossible. Now doing what guys like Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins maybe Zero 7 and a few others where they combine a real drummer and a real percussionist along with sequenced tracks? That’s OK since you actually have a live musician to work with that creates that human element. I don’t prefer it, but when done well, it’s tolerable and I don’t have a problem with that. Sampling other people’s music to create something? REALLY? My rant to those people is, get your head out of your rear and and learn how to play a musical instrument and get others to create your own music to use rather than essentially stealing someone else’s with or without permission. the second you take something out of context of the original, you lose the intent and then it’s just some phony excuse to market crap. PLEASE, stop that!! There is no quick way to creating music with integrity either you can play or you can’t and you shouldn’t be in the MUSIC industry if you can’t play and leave room for those that can. There are world class musicians out there that don’t get promoted because the non-musicians do. What a shame and a sad state of affairs the record industry has created and leaving for the younger generation.
But getting back to my point, the way the POP music industry is heading is there is less focus on musicianship and more focus on everything else that’s not musical is getting out of hand. Apple needs people at the top of the company that actually play musical instruments and actually know what authentic music is rather than the computer centric crap that anyone can throw together without having to study a single aspect of music theory or learn how to play a musical instrument.
Sorry to anyone that’s offended, but this is why I don’t buy music that’s focused around computers vs authentic musicians. If you can’t play a musical instrument without being edited to death or sing without the need for AutoTune, then to me, you shouldn’t be on any recording contract, and I don’t care how many albums you’ve sold. That just means you have lots of of money to market the content. Popularity doesn’t mean high quality. I see the pop world being equal to a McDonald’s food. Bad quality ingredients created by untrained chefs.
You must be a joy at parties. And you forgot to stamp your little feet.
“We’ve played country music, Mexican house music, South American EDM, German hip-hop. I’ve never been a fan of, “We’ve got to get 22 percent of rock, 17 percent of R&B; where’s our 16 percent of hip-hop and our 9 percent of country?” If you do it that way, you’re not basing it on the merit of the music. You’re basing it on some kind of obligation.”
Put this in the perspective of hiring minorities. Interesting. Playing the ‘minority’ music and not the pop stuff may bring a positive major change to the way that people listen to music!?!?