Ok that's harsh. I might listen to it again, but I won't be as enthused to listen as I was on Tuesday when it launched. There are many great things to love about Apple's new online only streaming station Beats 1. The fact that Apple actually hired some amazing program directors (Ebro, Zane Lowe and Julie Adenuga) to run the station is amazing. The fact that the playlist is extremely broad playing a bunch of genres including ones that aren't so popular here in the US is amazing! The fact that each presenter is live in the studio and not voice tracked like your local iHeart Media station is amazing! What's not so amazing is the fact that the station still seems to be stuck in the past in some ways.
For starters, why is the music censored! This is the internet not broadcast. To me, music is an art that should never be censored. If you take offense to it then turn it off. It was a total drag to hear Ebro go so hard playing amazing Hip Hop for the world to hear only for it to be so heavily censored. Now before you say I'm happy it's censored so I can listen to it with my kids that does not change the subject matter of the song. If the song speaks heavily about violence, drugs or sex would you still let your kids listen to it even if it is censored? I sure wouldn't.
Another issue I have with Beats 1 is that the station is formatted in a conventional manner still playing songs over and over. True the variety of songs may be more eclectic than traditional radio, but the fact that they have a song of the day that they play every hour is very annoying (How many times do I have to hear Freedom by Pharrell!).
Beats 1 is an amazing station but it's not revolutionary. The internet is full of human curated streaming radio stations that offer the same level of variety. Dash Radio for example is an amazing service started by DJ Skee after he grew tired of how crappy SiriusXM has become. It has over 50 stations programed by some of the industries finest with virtually every station playing uncensored tracks (yes including Top 40 stations too). It's a good service even though its sound quality is inconsistent from channel to channel.
With all this said, I applaud Apple for taking a different approach with the whole Apple Music service. I'll have a full review of Apple Music on iTunes within the next few days. Hint: I actually enjoy it. Beats 1 has actually exceeded my expectations (they were low) but it's just not enough.
0 comments:
Post a Comment