The first show of Apple's Beats 1 radio station which was hosted by Zane Lowe, played Spring King’s City as their first song and exclusively premiered Pharrell Williams’ song Freedom, which played twice during the 90 minutes show. With studios in Los Angeles, New York, and London, Apple Music features on-demand streaming and social networking which enables fans to connect with their favorite artists 24/7. It was reported that the show which started at 9 a.m. PDT had some problems and listeners were able to hear the crew members while they were testing the microphones, but soon after the show run smoothly and was expected quite well by listeners from all over the world.
Spring King writer and frontman Tarek Musa said that he was "blown away" when hearing that his song was the first to be played on Apple's Beats 1. "I've had a lot of emails and positive tweets from people who have never heard the band before. [...] I tweeted Zane because it's so cool that he's gone with a small band. We weren't expecting it at all. I'm blown away right now. If I see him I'll have to buy him a rum and coke,” Musa said.
Radio show host Lowe said that he and his team mainly choose City as the first song to be played because the Manchester band is ‘building momentum’ in the same way Apple’s Beats 1 team is. "We spent three months building this radio station and now we can build no more," Lowe said. "This band put this EP out a few months ago... it’s not about fanfare, fireworks and hangover the next day, it’s about quality and consistency... from now on, we’re always on," he added. Spring King’s City was followed by Beck's Dreams, Skepta’s Shutdown, and Jamie xx’s Gosh.
Besides anchor Lowe who hosts the show from Mon - Thurs at 7AM/PM there are two other anchors: Ebro Darden (hosting from Mon - Thurs at 1AM/PM) and Julie Adenuga (Hosting from Mon - Thurs at 10AM/PM.) Josh Homme, Drake, Dr Dre, Elton John, Pharrell, St Vincent, Disclosure, etc. are expected to host Beats 1 radio shows in the near future.
“Beats 1 is a place for progressive radio programming. Alongside new music programs from our anchor DJs, we’ve invited some of the biggest artists in the world to make brilliant radio shows — from exclusive weekly DJ mixes to interviews with iconic musicians about albums that changed their lives. Beats 1 plays everything from old-school hip-hop to futuristic pop, and it’s all handpicked by people who live and breathe music,” according to Apple.
Recently Apple Music has received plenty of criticism from different artists including Taylor Swift who openly criticized the company for not paying artists, right holders, musicians, producers, and songwriters during the three-month free trial new listeners are being offered. Apple later confirmed that it will start paying all artists during the 3-month free trial.
(Picture Source: Apple)