Zane Lowe

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Zane Lowe:

Beats 1 DJs move to FaceTime for musician interviews

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Zane
Zane Lowe will interview musicians over FaceTime for the foreseeable future.
Photo: Apple

Beats 1 DJs on Apple Music are being forced to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic and while they’re stuck inside, they’re turning to FaceTime to get the job done.

Apple revealed Monday that its radio show hosts will record interviews with musicians and other artists from their homes by using FaceTime on iPhone.

Apple employs a team of people to transcribe lyrics for Apple Music

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Streaming services like Apple Music dominate the US music market
This is one anecdote from a new Wired article about Apple Music.
Photo: Apple

Apple employs a team of people “listening to music and transcribing the lyrics,” says Oliver Schusser, head of Apple Music.

“We don’t get [lyrics] from the usual sites,” Schusser says, explaining that Apple doesn’t trust crowdsourcing to give it the right answers for its new synced lyrics feature.

Zane Lowe discusses future of radio DJs in age of streaming

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Things are looking good for Beats One and leading DJ Zane Lowe, one of the world's top radio personalities.
Things are looking good for Beats One and leading DJ Zane Lowe, one of the world's top radio personalities.
Photo: Apple

Beats 1 Radio host Zane Lowe says he’s excited that Apple Music’s competitors are starting to rip off his live streaming radio show.

Lowe, who left the BBC’s Radio 1 to lead Beats 1 Radio, said in a recent interview that he still questions how his radio show fits in with the music scene. In the age of social media where artists can interact directly with fans, radio hosts don’t seem like a necessity, but Spotify and YouTube Music are planning to launch radio shows of their own and Lowe is ready to welcome them to the league.

How Jimmy Iovine plans to save Apple Music’s ‘soul’

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Iovine
Apple Music boss Jimmy Iovine at WWDC 2015.
Photo: Apple

Apple Music has already racked up more than 30 million paid subscribers, but according to boss Jimmy Iovine, the company still has a long way to go before its satisfied with its streaming service.

The former Beats CEO turned Apple exec sat down for a new interview along with Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe to talk about the future of the service. During the wide-ranging discussion, the Apple Music team revealed how it thinks music streaming has to change in order to dominate free rivals like YouTube.

Zane Lowe: ‘We had just three months to build Beats 1’

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Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe and others talk Beats 1 on the second anniversary of its launch.
Photo: Apple

This month marks the second year of Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station. To mark the occasion, Apple DJs Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden and Julie Adenuga have given an interview with High Snobiety, in which they look back at the successes and challenges faced by Apple Music over the past couple of years.

Fifth Avenue Apple store to get Beats 1 broadcasting booth

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Beats 1 could soon be broadcasting from an Apple store.
Beats 1 could soon be broadcasting from an Apple store.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s iconic retail store on Fifth Avenue will reopen with a Beats 1 broadcasting booth after being renovated, according to a new report.

The booth could become a new home for Beats 1 DJ Ebro Darden, who currently broadcasts from another location in Manhattan — or it could host occasional musical guests.

Zane Lowe says Apple is working on new Beats stations

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Zane Lowe
Beats 2, 3, 4, and 5 may be in the works.
Photo: Apple

Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe says that Apple is “working on” new Beats radio stations, although won’t introduce them until, “they feel it’s right.”

While Lowe doesn’t provide more details, it’s one of the few things he addresses directly in an interview during which he sidesteps plenty of other questions — suggesting it’s something that Apple’s happy to be talked about to some extent.

Apple Music execs discuss the future of music streaming

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Bozoma Saint John
Bozoma Saint John is in charge of hyping Apple Music.
Photo: Apple

The future of Apple Music will be a lot less focused on music and more about pop culture, according to three of Apple’s top employees working on the project.

Beats One DJ Zane Lowe, marketing guru Bozoma Saint John and Apple Music’s head of content, Larry Jackson, sat down for a three-headed interview to discuss what fans can expect from the streaming service. Music will always be part of Apple Music, but Lowe revealed that other forms of entertainment are coming soon.

Drake’s Views racks up 250 million streams on Apple Music

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Apple Music and Drake
Let's hear it for high-res Drake tracks.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s big bet on Drake is paying off huge for both sides and shattering records in the process.

Drake’s new album Views is only available on Apple Music, but it’s already been streamed over 250 million times in its first week and his album sales are on pace to be the biggest release by a male artist since Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience.

How Beats 1 DJ takes Friday nights to new heights

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anna-lunoe
DJ Anna Lunoe goes from the stage to the Beats 1 studio.
Photo: swimfinfan/Flickr CC

Beats 1 DJ Anna Lunoe revealed some details about how she got picked for her weekly gig before Apple Music had even been announced. Zane Lowe was apparently so impressed with her earlier work that he gave her complete freedom over what she wanted to do for the show.

Known for her house and electronic mixes, Lunoe aptly plays an eclectic collection of dance music during her slot every Friday night at 9 p.m. Pacific time or 12 a.m. Saturday Eastern time.

Drake, Elton John, and Pharrell will have their own Beats 1 shows

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Beats 1 will be the first channel to announce MTV's 2015 VMA nominees.
Beats 1 delivers 24/7 internet radio.
Photo: Apple

Apple is planning to launch its new streaming music service in less than a week and the company plans to pack a lot of star power to get iOS users to tune in.

As part of the new Apple Music service, Beats 1 Radio will use a host of celebrities to plan and host their own music shows that will touch on everything from golden oldies brought to you by Elton John, to hip new Millennial songs with teen Jaden Smith spinning the discs.

Slim Shady stands up for first Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe

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Beats 1 could soon be broadcasting from an Apple store.
Eminem is the first major musical guest on Apple Music.
Photo: Apple

DJ Zane Lowe is clearly intent on getting Beats 1 kicked off with a bang, since he has posted an image to Instagram revealing that hip-hop artist Eminem will be his first guest interview when Apple Music launches next week.

Lowe joined Apple from BBC Radio 1 earlier this year, where he had previously interviewed top-tier music names including Eminem, Kanye West, Jay Z, Rick Rubin, and Chris Martin.

What if Apple’s Beats 1 turns out like BBC’s Radio 1?

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dj
DJ Zane Lowe is heading up Apple's Beats 1 live radio station. If it's anything like the BBC's Radio 1 -- where Lowe made his name -- it could be the great music discovery mechanism that digital music's been looking for.

Please, please, please let Apple’s Beats 1 radio station be good.

Of all the announcements at Monday’s WWDC keynote, that’s the one I personally am most excited about. When it launches June 30, Beats 1 will be a 24-hour global radio station run by three DJs from three different cities around the world.

I’m a music junkie. I listen to music radio all the time, especially Radio 1, the BBC’s flagship radio station in London. To be honest, a lot of it sucks, but a lot of it doesn’t. It allows me — an expat Limey living in California — to keep tabs on Britain’s awesome musical culture.

And that’s what I’m hoping for — that Apple’s billions will privately fund a radio station that’s like the BBC’s publicly funded Radio 1 — on a global scale.

Apple hinted at such ambitions in the launch video played during Monday’s keynote. Done right, it could be the great music discovery mechanism the entire music industry’s been looking for.

Apple Music puts a human face on the mess that music’s become

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Iovine
Jimmy Iovine talks up Apple Music at WWDC 2015.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s big idea for transforming the way we experience music is bringing a personal touch — and a simple, unified platform — to the tangled technological mess that music’s become in 2015. Apple Music is classic Apple: putting a human face on technology that threatens to overwhelm us.

Tim Cook brought out high-profile artists, and Apple’s team of industry insiders, to show off what he called “the next chapter in music” today at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

“I know your are going to love it,” Cook said, introducing Apple Music. “It will change the way that you experience music forever.”

Here’s what Apple Music will bring to your ears.