M.C. Siegler, writing for Medium:
What do you listen to when you can listen to literally anything? For me, it’s often the same things over and over again. I hate choosing.
First world problem to the extreme, I know. But I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way as it has long been the selling point of the Beats music service (and what has made Pandora so great): choices made for you.
Beats 1 is the extreme extension of this. It’s a choice — one choice — made for everyone. This sounds draconian until you look at the flip side: everyone on the planet currently listening to Beats 1 is listening to the exact same thing. How cool is that? Actually, very cool.
Exactly.
“everyone on the planet currently listening to Beats 1 is listening to the exact same thing. How cool is that? Actually, very cool.”
I agree with this. I think there is something ingrained in us as humans to want to be part of something bigger than ourselves and this shared experience helps to fill that need in a small way. But that small way is enough to make Apple Music very attractive.
The only problem with it so far is that there’s way too much hip hop and not enough of anything else. Nothing else seems to be getting any traction.
Maybe it’s the times I’ve been able to listen. But I have listened for at least six or seven hours, and all I seem to hear is hip hop, and then some popular song rundowns (which I thought was not going to be that important on Beats 1).
Oh, and Pharrel Williams singing one song. Over and over. Good song, mind you. And some of the hip hop is good too. But if it’s going to be about discovery, where’s the electronic, country, rock, African, Asian, funk, alternative, metal, dance, etc.? Is this just pop and hiphop? Or not? Where’s the new stuff we haven’t heard yet?
It must be when you’re listening. I just heard electronic on the way in to work. A song called Crystallize and then something called Bloodstream by Ed Sheeran and Rudimental which has elements of acoustic guitar, R&B, and electronic stuff. Zane Lowe was streaming, but he played a promo from Julia Adenuga indicating that this first week she was focusing on hip and trip hop, although I’ve heard her play electronic and hard blues rock (Alabama Shakes). She said she plans to do sets of many other things, including “the female artist set” and others. I haven’t heard much of Ebro’s sets, but the other DJs who fill in between the main ones have some variety as well. It’s still early days.
There is a lot of rap and such I’m not fond of, but compared to terrestrial stations, there is variety and I’ve actually heard things with rap and hip hop influence that I was impressed by. And that’s part of listening to radio — sticking through some things you don’t like to discover something new. IT won’t be everyone’s cup of tea or have enough variety for some; how could it possibly cater to every taste around the world? But I think it’s doing a decent job so far. It’s got me listening, and I haven’t listened to radio for years (except long enough here and there to know I still hated it 🙂 )
You mean M.G. Siegler… although M.C. is perhaps more apt for the article topic.
Only cool if you listen to the things others listen to, and enjoy a sense of community. For people like me, on the other hand, it’s an interesting phenomenon to watch from the sidelines, but I have no desire or intention to join the masses. (Most of what I listen to is obscure Scandinavian electronica… and the iTunes Store’s “you might also like” is good enough for me. Let me curate my own library. I don’t care what friends or strangers listen to.)
Thanks! Glad to hear I’m not correct in my assessment.