Photograph: Apple
Apple calls Beats 1 “the biggest radio station in the world” and says it beats (no pun supposed) all different music stations on the subject of concurrent listeners. Nonetheless, with out arduous figures to again that up, some name out Cupertino on this declare.
Beats 1 launch brings 24/7 stay music to Apple followers
As its title suggests, the origin of Beats 1 will 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 premise for Apple Music. Nonetheless, Zane Lowe — one of many first Beats 1 DJs — mentioned the time-frame for creating Beats 1 proved extremely tight. The workforce, he mentioned in interviews over time, had simply three months to “build Beats 1 from scratch.”
In contrast to Apple Music, Beats 1 required no subscription to take heed 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 title 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 stay radio on Apple Music
Lowe mentioned early on that he was “not sure” how important Beats 1 was to the general Apple Music expertise — though he hoped “there’s a place for it.” Within the years for the reason that Beats 1 launch, Apple’s major radio station has continued to garner big-name interviews and superstar hosts, notably within the hip-hop world. (Lowe nonetheless hosts The Zane Lowe Present.)
Unusually, Apple does comparatively little to advertise its radio stations. And the concentrate on them as a key differentiator for Apple Music appears to have gone the best way of the streaming service’s controversial early concentrate on exclusives.
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