Like sister channel Beats 1 (now Apple Music 1), the new Apple Music Hits isn’t going to be “in format” much. Which is too bad because I loved the montage that kicked off the station on August 18:
- Eve & Gwen Stefani, “Let Me Blow Your Mind”
- Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
- T.I., “Whatever You Like”
- Blink-182, “All The Small Things” (Blink’s Mark Hoppus is hosting a show on the channel)
- Ice Cube, “It Was A Good Day”
- Mariah Carey, “Dreamlover”
- Dr. Dre, “The Next Episode”
- Stevie Wonder, “Superstition”
- Prince, “Kiss”
- Ciara, “1, 2 Step”
- Huey Lewis & the News, “The Power Of Love” (Lewis is hosting a show as well)
- Usher, “Yeah,” mashed up with Harold Faltermeyer, “Axel F”
- Pink, “Raise Your Glass”
- LMFAO, “Party Rock Anthem”
- Martin Solveig & Dragonette, “Hello”
- Mary J. Blige, “Family Affair”
In that moment, Apple Music Hits declared itself as “next generation Classic Hits.” Broadcast radio has been recently been nudging toward a ‘90s/early ‘00s gold format, whether with the launch of all-‘90s stations like WMIA (Totally 93.9) Miami or by adding more throwback weekends to a weakened CHR or Hot AC station. Now there’s a national music service also living there. Its promise is “the music that raised you,” which would put the intended listener just around age 25. (Apple Music Hits launched in conjunction with the new Apple Music Country and the rebranding of the five-year-old Beats 1.)
In its first day, Apple Music Hits was relying heavily on specialty shows with celebrity hosts, judging from its posted schedule. There’s a morning drive shift with Jayde Donovan, who also hosted the launch hour, and a second format show with the station’s Strombo, who led the second hour, but even those first day shows were centered around interviews with and music from the guest hosts—Estelle, Shania Twain, Huey Lewis (who hosts an ‘80s show), Snoop Dogg, Nina Sky, Ciara, Meghan Trainor. The schedule also features the Backstreet Boys, although I didn’t hear them mentioned, despite their obvious marquee value on a ‘90s/early ‘00s radio station.
Here’s the 1 p.m. hour of day 1, as Strombo took over from Donovan, beginning with her final song:
- Janet Jackson, “All For You”
- Beastie Boys, “Intergalactic”
- Missy Elliott, “Lose Control”
- Queens of the Stone Age, “No One Knows”
- Linkin Park f/Jay-Z, “Numb/Encore”
- Alanis Morissette, “You Oughta Know” (following an interview with Morissette, who also hosts a show)
- Lauryn Hill, “Everything Is Everything”
- Blink-182, “The Rock Show”
- Clash, “London Calling”
- Huey Lewis & the News, “The Power Of Love”
- Estelle, “American Boy”
- Bob Marley & Wailers, “Zimbabwe” (the first song of Estelle’s show)
At one point, Strombo talked about being able to listen to the station “on your phone, on your laptop, or on your watch,” a very Apple take on the traditional “at home, at work, in your car” usage liner. There’s another interesting Apple connection though—most of the songs in that hour were actually songs I remember having on my first iPod in 2002-03.
It’s also worth noting that all of the music I heard in the first two hours were songs that would have been familiar to American audiences, although you might have had to listen to multiple formats to have heard both Queens of the Stone Age and Lauryn Hill. That’s different from Beats 1, which began with a more global feel due to marquee presenter Zane Lowe.
During his opening hour, Strombo echoed Lowe from those first days in his promise that the station would be “algorithm free.” When Beats 1 launched in 2015, I probably commented then that Pandora and Spotify, the apparent targets of that quip, weren’t without their obvious human touches either, and that’s certainly more the case now. But I’ve always appreciated Apple Radio for trying to hold it down for hosted, curated radio. Beyond SiriusXM, that experience is the thing missing most from the playlists of our infinite dial. Increasingly, it’s the thing missing from FM radio.
Personally, I’m more interested in what Apple Music’s experts curate on any of the channels than I am in any artist’s playlist, but I’m also the person who would watch MTV more if they went back to videos. After I initially posted an earlier version of this story on the first afternoon, Carrie Underwood began her two hour shift on the new Apple Music Country with “Home Sweet Home” by Motley Crue. By the time she played Queen, “Fat Bottomed Girls”; George Michael, “Faith”; and Aerosmith, “What It Takes,” two friends had messaged about it. It led me to think that maybe Apple Music needs a channel that is just celebrity playlists.
(UPDATE: I also came back after 11 p.m. to hear part of Huey Lewis’ ’80s show. That hour was mostly megahits on the “Love Shack”/”When Doves Cry”/”Like A Virgin” level. Where Underwood sounded natural and related personally to each song. Lewis sounded more scripted, less comfortable. There were also some gaffes that will bother people-who-are-not-Sean to varying degrees. His Stevie Wonder song was 1976’s “Isn’t She Lovely.” Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” was described as her “first hit.” I know streaming services have to deal with re-recorded versions of Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” but this one wasn’t even close to the original. People-who-are-Sean think the streaming community needs to get that particular rights issue worked out.
I also tuned in again to an hour of Donovan’s show at 8 a.m., ET, August 19, and it’s very much along the lines of the opening montage.
- Rihanna, “Pon de Replay”
- Technotronic, “Pump Up The Jam”
- Go West, “King Of Wishful Thinking”
- Christina Aguilera, “Genie In A Bottle”
- Bell Biv DeVoe, “Poison”
- Killers, “Mr. Brightside”
- Gorillaz, “Feel Good Inc.”
- Snoop Doggy Dog, “Gin And Juice”
- Pink, “U + Ur Hand”
- B-52’s, “Love Shack”
- KT Tunstall, “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree”
- Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”
- Wu-Tang Clan, “M.E.T.H.O.D. Man”
- Fountains of Wayne, “Stacy’s Mom”
- Whitney Houston, “How Will I Know”)
When Beats 1 launched, I live tweeted for the first few hours; the people who engaged with me most tended to be the British friends who already knew Zane Lowe, or the serious students of world radio. I would say there was a little more attention to my postings about Apple Music Hits on Tuesday, but it seems like the true social media attention is going to Apple Music Country so far. Its celebrity guest hosts are particularly impactful for being current hitmakers–Underwood, Luke Bryan, Florida-Georgia Line, Jimmie Allen, Kelsea Ballerini, Midland, and many others. “Is it me or is every artist getting their own show?” tweeted one listener. Also, for its many flourishes, it’s still riffing off an established format in a way that the other channels don’t.
The Nashville music community has shown itself at this point to be particularly comfortable with national (and international) platforms–from CMT to SiriusXM’s The Highway to Radio Disney Country, there’s a history now of curation separate from the oft-glacial radio charts, and with it the prospect of the sort of music enterprise wars that sometimes took place in an individual market in a much different era of the format. Much of Apple Music Country is specialty shows as well, but here’s the station on Day 2, just before 1 p.m. ET, heading in to anchor Ty Bentli’s first regular format shift. About 25% of the hour is music that you wouldn’t hear on a typical mainstream Country outlet.
- Jon Pardi, “Ain’t Always The Cowboy”
- Billy Currington, “Seaside” (that song’s only other airplay is on Nashville’s YoCo 96.7)
- Breland, “My Truck”
- Brooks & Dunn, “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”
- Luke Combs w/Brooks & Dunn, “1, 2 Many”
- Lady A, “Champagne Night”
- Randy Travis, “Fool’s Love Affair”
- Maren Morris, “The Bones”
- Kane Brown, “BFE” (from his “Mixtape, Vol. 1,” not receiving other significant airplay)
- Hardy, “Boots” (from his forthcoming album; not currently receiving other significant airplay)
- Zac Brown Band, “Jump Right In” (keyed to a bit about the TikTok video of a man jumping in the pool at a Bass Pro Shop)
- Jordan Davis, “Almost Maybes”
- Miranda Lambert, “Bluebird”
- Fancy Hagood, “Don’t Blink” (the former pop artist, Who Is Fancy?)
- Brett Kissell, “Coffee With Her” (hitmaking Canadian artist but with a brand new song)
Hearing some strange “edits”. Not re-recordings as mentioned.. But I heard INXS – Need You Tonight with just a very short intro. I also heard the album version of B-52’s Love Shack but it ended right after she shouts Tin Roof Rusted. Otherwise, good mix of music. Just some strange decisions on some songs.
Not listening to songs the entire way through would also be keeping with the “iPod’s Greatest Hits” approach!