Score: 4.5/5
Beats 1 launched last week to 100 different countries worldwide and operates out of Los Angeles, London and New York City. Apple promised a feeling of international collaboration and something the world had never seen before, but did the station live up to its promise?
The promise of a constantly running radio station is a tall order to fill, but Apple has managed to do a good job at bringing the station to the literal world. Technical issues that plagued the first day aside, the quality of the station has increased every single day. Every other day it seems as though another huge musician is announcing a brand new radio show; people such as Elton John, Dr. Dre, Run the Jewels and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend bring their own distinct on-air presences to the station.
The daily disc jockeys also are good from what I’ve heard. The DJ who kicked off Beats 1, Zane Lowe, has a high voltage, borderline ridiculous personality that I personally enjoy. He has easily become my favorite of all of the DJs because of his mix of well-known music with underground tunes that have not hit the mainstream yet. Most of the time his show is on, I am adding songs to my Spotify playlists, something Apple probably wanted to avoid. In fact, on Monday I liked his mix so much that I stopped what I was doing to save those songs for later. I highly recommend checking him out.
In an effort to achieve a feeling of community, Beats 1 has a heavy presence on social media. In fact, the schedule for Beats 1 is uploaded on Tumblr. People send their requests and votes on Twitter for the daily Chart show, a show that is exactly what you probably think it is, only worse. The DJ is fine, giving fun facts about artists before their songs are played. The issue with the Chart show is the music.
It is absolutely the worst that Beats 1 has to offer. Every day the chart is almost identical to what it was the day before, it is the same music you hear a thousand times a day on the radio, and the songs, more often than not, get cut off after a few seconds to a minute. It is as though the DJ knows you are sick of it. Skip it.
If you are skeptical that Apple wants to push music discovery and its own library of content to get new subscribers to Apple Music, you might be surprised to know that DJs can actually bring their own music to the station, regardless if Apple has it or not. While the outcome usually results in a lack of album art and sometimes even song titles and artist labels in the stream, it feels genuine, as though the DJ at the time is excited to bring some of their favorite music to the people.
What makes Beats 1 so ambitious is the idea of putting essentially all genres of music in one place. The station attempts to make radio a one-size-fits-all for everyone. The craziest part is that it actually works most of the time. Despite the Charts show, DJs bring their own style to their radio shows that usually results in a good mix of music from all over the place. For instance, in the same radio show I heard Beck and Dr. Dre back to back. While that sounds kind of crazy to listen to, it shows the variety of music that can be heard at any moment.
Beats 1 does the job of bringing a worldwide Internet radio station actually worldwide while simultaneously excelling at it. The questionable all-genres-in-one radio actually is more of a welcoming feature than an off-putting one. I listen to Beats 1 the way I used to listen to the radio as a kid — to find new music.
While not every single tune will have you scrambling to add a song to your library, it is worth listening to figure out what shows you like the most. I guarantee you will find something.
Riley Katz is 20-year-old mass communication junior from New Orleans. You can reach him on Twitter at @rkatz94.