When Beats 1 Radio launches next week as part of Apple Music, it will feature programs by artists including Dr. Dre and Elton John. The former artist’s show will be called “The Pharmacy,” while the latter will host “Elton John’s Rocket Hour,” according to The New York Times.
Other artists and celebrities who will have their own one- and two-hour radio shows include Pharrell Williams, Drake, St. Vincent, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, Disclosure and Jaden Smith.
BBC DJ Zane Lowe will lead the charge alongside Ebro Darden, of New York’s Hot 97, and London-based Julie Adenuga.
The paper reports that the idea for Beats 1 Radio came from Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who was previously Beats’ chief creative officer and continues to serve as a designer at Apple Music. After growing disillusioned with the way that digital music had made it so “everything gets so nichey” when it comes to playlists, hearing the way Lowe conducted himself on the BBC inspired the singer to question radio’s role in music discovery. “I wondered if in today’s world there is still a place for monoculture,” Reznor told the Times. “Can that still exist?”
One of the first big interviews that the radio station will broadcast will be Lowe’s recent encounter with Eminem, in which they discussed the rapper’s music for the new film Southpaw and his experiences as a boxer. The air time for the interview has yet to be announced.
Speak On It!