Apple announces a new radio offering around Apple Music, a little tune of Nostalgia and a country channel.
In the audio streaming market, Apple Music arrived late, but quickly grew. In June 2019, Apple announced that the bar of 60 million subscribers had been crossed. In early 2020, the giant Spotify confirmed its lead with 120 million paying subscribers. But how do you stand out in a market where the catalogs are more or less the same and where temporary exclusives have this perverse effect of angering fans and encouraging pirating of albums? Spotify has long opted for algorithmic playlists, and for a few months now launched into the home podcast.
Apple, for its part, has bet everything on handmade : playlists created by humans, meticulously arranged compilations and above all, a radio called Beats 1, hosted 24/7 by big names in music and the music press all over the world. On August 18 at 6 p.m., this radio began its first revolution: it abandoned the brand of headphones Beats to become Apple Music 1. Difficult, in fact, to understand where Apple was going with the use of a brand very little associated to its products – even though it actually owns the range of helmets.
Noooooostaaaaaapple Music Hits
But perhaps the most interesting comes from the diversification of radio stations: Apple is launching Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country at the same time. The concept of the first channel will be absolutely no stranger to the French public, fans of Nostalgie and other Chante France: it is a radio station broadcasting hits from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. If the hosts, mainly English-speaking and from the international music media do not necessarily speak to the French public, the guests who have concocted programs have more evocative names and set the tone for the radio: the Backstreet Boys, Alanis Morissette, Snoop Dogg or Shania Twain have been mentioned.
The niche is obvious: playing on musical nostalgia works. Listening to songs that rocked our childhood or our adolescence has a very special meaning. And Apple Music knows its audience well: where our French radio stations broadcast specialized programs in the 60s or 70s, the web giant seems to target a younger audience, between 20 and 30 years old. To judge the quality of the programming, shows and guests, you will have to go to the Apple Music application – 3 months of subscriptions are offered to get an idea of the service.
With Apple Music Country, Apple is also not forgetting its local market. The country which is exported from the United States being a tiny proportion of the country produced for the Americans, one understands the desires of Apple to seduce the listeners of this popular genre which floods the airwaves across the Atlantic. Like the Hits channel, this new radio will be available directly in the app. In French, only one program is produced by Apple: Le Code, presented by Mehdi Maïzi, around French rap. It is not shown in live streams, intended for an international audience.
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