Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 Not Built For Passive Music Fan
From being BBC Radio 1’s “tastemaker-in-charge” for fresh, cutting-edge music to helming Apple’s fresh, cutting-edge new radio station, New Zealander Zane Lowe has found himself at the forefront of music media development, time and time again. Daniel Peters of Singapore’s Bandwagon interviews “one of music’s most important voices.”
Lowe is now a DJ on Beats 1, an online radio station running 24/7 as part of music streaming app Apple Music. He’s found himself in charge of programming the free station while hosting his own show in Los Angeles, interviewing a growing crop of modern artists from The Weekend to Lady Gaga. Despite having worked in music for decades, Lowe never takes his current job for granted.
“My greatest [lesson], really, in recent times was that you know first it’s a privilege, it’s not an expectation,” Lowe says. “Being able to get behind a project early on should be something that you earn because you’ve done the best job at doing it.”
Apple Music has amassed over 20 million subscribers worldwide, and Beats 1 has been lauded for its tasteful programming and special guest shows, run by artists like Frank Ocean, Run The Jewels, St. Vincent and tastemakers Boiler Room.
“[Beats 1 is] a distraction-free, insatiable platform for music, with an emphasis on new music and trying to create new music,” he says.
“[At Beats 1] we have an untraditional approach in that we’ve offered people to listen to as much music as possible. And we’re going to give artists a chance to tell their own stories, play their own records, play their friends’ records and interview each other. We wanted to be a very collaborative and immersive experience for people that love music.
“It’s certainly not built for the passive music fan.
“There are so many [artists] we would love to welcome – a huge amount of artists that we believe in and we would love. Personally, I would love Lorde to do a show. I would love for her to come and do a season.”
Original article by Daniel Peters, Bandwagon, April 12, 2017.
