Surprises From The First Few Hours Of Beats 1 Radio

  1. There Are Ads – Apple never mentioned this and you’d be surprised considering how rich it is, but occasionally little promotional messages like “Beats 1 is made possible by American Express” play on the air.
  2. The Music Selection Is All Over The Place – Hardcore drum’n’bass dance music is immediately followed by serene singer/songwriter crooning, followed by loud and jangly rock’n’roll. You’ll need very eclectic tastes to enjoy all of it. If you can roll with the variety, though, the songs have generally been pretty great.
  3. Programs Will Repeat – Not everything on Beats 1 will be live. Some of its content will be strategically repeated on a significant time shift so its best content reaches people in different time zones. For example, Zane Lowe’s show from 9am this morning will repeat again at 9pm tonight.
  4. Songs Will Be Censored – Apple wants to keep Beats 1 family-friendly. So even when it dropped a song by Apple employee Dr. Dre, it aggressively bleeped out objectionable words or whole lines.
  5. You Can Call In Requests – Apple has set up toll-free phone numbers for major markets where users can dial in to give song requests. How quaint.
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  6. Zane Lowe Loves The Sound Of His Own Voice – The London DJ who’s the face of Beats 1 frequently talked over the songs he played, dropping the brand name, excitedly cheering on his own selections, mentioning tour dates, or repeatedly reminding users that Beats 1 is “WORLDWIDE!” While it is available in around 100 countries, it’s still a bit ostentatious. Twitter has been flooded with complaints about Lowe’s interruptions.

What Apple Music is good at is telling you what to listen to. It’s the mainstreaming music service for people with no clue what to listen to.

Want a feel for what it’s like to use Apple Music? Watch our video demo below:

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Presumably Zane Lowe’s spirit animal. “I put radio on the Internet!”