Apple’s live radio station has two UK DJs

By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 9 June 2015, 7.00am edt

Apple has announced that they are to launch a live radio station, “Beats 1”. The station is live - the press release says that every listener will “hear the same programming at the same time”, which is as revolutionary as you’d expect from Apple. Thank goodness they've invented internet radio!

Beats 1 has three announced presenters: Zane Lowe in Los Angeles, Ebro Darden in New York and Julie Adenuga in London. Two of those will be familiar voices to UK radio listeners.

Probably best known, Zane Lowe, 41, is a New Zealander: but after a stint at London’s Xfm, he moved to BBC Radio 1 to present the evening show. He has a reputation for being the new music guru, and rightfully claims to have broken many bands. His show had a market share of around 6.7%. Wikipedia claims: “A key feature of his broadcasting style was to avoid the use of the fader to reduce the volume of the track being played during intros and outros, rather he talks or shouts gibberish over the tracks which are played at undiminished volume.”

Ebro Darden, 40, isn’t known to UK audiences. He was formerly VP of Programming for Emmis station Hot 97, a hip-hop station in New York; he was also a co-host of the breakfast show.

Julie Adenuga is the interesting signing. She’s presented Rinse FM’s drivetime show; yet you’d be forgiven for not knowing much about Rinse FM. It’s a former pirate, playing grime, dubstep, house, jungle and other stuff like that; and it has a community radio station licence, which gives it a tiny little transmission area. Yet, Rinse FM continually punches above its weight, with a strong appearance on social media. I can’t find her age, but it’s fair to say that she’s closer to half the age of her co-presenters on Beat 1.

It’s an interesting mix of a commercial programmer, a “new music guru”, and fresh young talent. Beats 1 will be free to listen to if you've an Apple device; and if you use Android, you'll have to pay.

That's an ad for it, above. I'm sure the "listening to online radio while in a moving New York subway train" is aspirational, rather than, you know, possible.

“So, are we going to a fiery cartwall hell?”, asked a colleague after Apple’s WWDC announcement. I’m distinctly underwhelmed.

The streaming service, and “curated” genre streams, offer little different to other streaming services. Slacker - and Pandora, to an extent - have been humanly curated for some considerable time, after all.

But with Beats 1, I think they’ve missed an opportunity. Live, simulcast radio is actually not doing very well on mobile. iHeart Radio shows, charitably, static figures over the past year or so. In Norway, internet listening is also not growing. Independent online stations I talk to also say that they’re not growing. A recent internal memo from NPR says that member stations are seeing a decline in live streams.

Beats 1 could have shown the radio industry how to do great radio, tailored for mobile. Content that is atomised and personalised, yet feels live, real and relevant. A blend of on-demand and live, playout done by the device, live radio with the skip button.

But, as it is, we have a very niche service, with limited appeal, and a non-interactive service on the most interactive thing in your pocket. It’s a lovely thing for Apple to do; but I don’t think it’s a fiery cartwall hell just yet for us. Indeed, it might convince some people that radio has a future.

So, that’s all good.

Other industry pundits have also had their say:

Their arrival doesn’t scare me. I’m still much happier in the radio business than in the streaming music business that’s for sure.

... says Matt Deegan

In some respects [...] another free online radio station. There are many of those already; licenced or not. But I wouldn’t underestimate the power of this station. Apple can throw more money at this project than any radio broadcaster in the world.

... says Adam Bowie

So if Apple is launching its own version of radio, where does that leave a station such as Radio 1? And if Apple’s idea of radio doesn’t turn out to be radio as we know it, what does that mean for the very notion of radio?

... says Peter Robinson in The Guardian