Beats 1 radio has been arguably the best feature to come out of Apple’s foray into the streaming music world. With its fabulous lineup of rotating DJs and artist radio shows, Beats 1 has become a great place to discover new music, but many users have complained the station focuses too much on hip-hop and plays the same songs too often.
To identify Beats 1’s true taste in music, a new study analyzed data on more than 12,000 songs played on the station from early July to early August. After crunching the numbers, they found Beats 1 has something other radio stations lack: scarcity.
More than 3,300 tracks have been played on Beats 1, with the average song getting repeated 3.7 times, but some artists are getting a lot more love than others.
Here are the top 20 artists on Beats 1, according to the study by Quartz:
According to Quartz, the Weeknd has been the station’s favorite artist, thanks to his hit song Can’t Feel My Face, which has been played 107 times since the station launched. Halsey’s New Americana was the second most played with 77 spins, while Selena Gomez came in a close third, with 75 spins on her song Good For You.
As far as genres go, Beats 1 definitely prefers hip-hop, with 1,726 plays. Alternative was the second most popular genre with 1,506 plays, while electronic got 802.
Apple has insisted that Beats 1 is a global music station but the data crunchers found that nearly every song is in English and produced by artists from the United States, United Kingdom or Canada.
Apple Music has already gotten off to a strong start, with more than 11 million people signing up for the free service since launch.
Source: Quartz
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
11 responses to “These artists are Beats 1’s favorites”
Cool information… I remember listening day 1 and hearing Zane play songs from Belgium and other foreign tracks, but def have noticed that haven’t heard as many global beats as I originally expected. So far not a bad thing, cause the variety has kept me coming back for more and more, but I def hope to hear a more cross cultural mix in the future.
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I stopped listening exactly because of this. After a few days of hearing hiphop after hiphop song I gave up. Hopefully they will play more rock and electronic or give us more stations.
I keep trying to listen to Beats 1. I really want to like it. In the first couple days, I heard some cool music that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. Unfortunately, every time in the last few weeks that I’ve turned it on it is playing hardcore urban hip hop. Stuff that doesn’t even come close to being crossover either.
I’ve tried listening before work, in the afternoon, after work, and in the late evening. It is always hip-hop. I could deal with the hip-hop if if were mixed in with other music.
I don’t like the term, but I am an Apple fanboy. I really want to like Beats 1, but Apple is making it difficult.
The above numbers would show that you are wrong. They played just as much hip hop as alternative. If could be the times that you were actually listening to it. I listen to pretty often and here a very good mix of all types of music.
There are enough genres of music to not have any one genre be more than 10% of the playlist. I would think that people who are experts at music could figure out how to mix it properly to make it appeal to a wide array of listeners.
I should be able to listen for an hour and hear at least one example of 3 to 5 genres of music.
I hate hip hop. And so long as it doesn’t also include Latin music, it’s a joke to call it “global.” It’s music for American blacks and whites, the only ethnic groups that seem to exist for Apple.
Hey! I like hip-hop … that is, about 5-10% of it. I really wanted to like Beats 1, but finally gave up after I realized it was a hip-hop station. Meanwhile I listen to other genre of music available on iTunes.
Hopefully iTunes will someday soon offer Beats 2, 3, 4, etc. with a selection of music styles … “for the rest of us.”
I turned Beats 1 off after 2 days because all i heard was American Hip Hop, i don’t mind some more mainstream Hip Hop but this was by people i have never heard of and most of it was depressing. If its not Hip Hop its talking. I use some of the other stations or use the Create Radio Station button based on a track.
I have no reason to doubt that this is true, but my experience is the same as most people’s where every time I tune in it seems to be 90% hip-hop. Which is the genre I’m actually really into so I enjoy it for a little while. Ironically though, I was really hoping that Beats 1 would be my number 1 music discovery source, so playing mostly stuff I already am into defeats what I’m tuning in for in the first place.
“Hip-hop is the most-played genre on Beats 1,” glad to know I’m not missing out on anything with Beats 1.