Last week, it was reported that Drake’s latest project was streamed 89.9 million times in its first 24 hours of availability on Apple Music, a number that bested Spotify by nearly 30 million despite Spotify’s larger user base.
Now, Apple Music executives Jimmy Iovine, Robert Kondrk, and Zane Lowe have sat down with The Verge to offer up more details on Apple’s work with Drake, as well as Beats 1 as a whole.
In its first week of availability on Apple Music, Drake’s “More Life” project was streamed 300 million times. That bests Drake’s previous album, “Views,” which also happened to be an Apple Music exclusive. “More Life,” however, was not an Apple Music exclusive, making it all the more notable that the project out-performed Views. Apple attributes the strong performance of Drake’s work on Apple Music to Beats 1.
Apple VP of apps and content Robert Kondrk and Apple Music head of content Larry Jackson explained to The Verge that Beats 1 has basically replaced SoundCloud for Drake. The rapper has gone from releasing singles through SoundCloud to debuting them through his weekly Beats 1 show, “OVO Sound Radio.”
Jackson says that Drake very much took a chance on Apple Music. “We weren’t a proven hit, we weren’t a proven entity at all, whatsoever,” he explained. Jimmy Iovine added that Apple has worked to build Beats 1 around what Drake wants and needs:
“We learned so much from just building what Drake needed,” Iovine added. “He had the idea, we kind of just built and supported around him, and we’ve learned a lot from that, and the entire industry has learned a lot from that.”
The Apple Music executives also offered up some information on Beats 1’s scope and reach. Iovine explained that the numbers he saw on Drake’s radio show were “TV numbers,” noting last weekend’s episode where “More Life” was debuted marked the most listened to Beats 1 show to date.
Furthermore, Larry Jackson stated that Beats 1 is the “biggest radio station in the world.” Jackson’s comment is notable as many have questioned the success of the always-on Beats 1 streaming platform as Apple has been reluctant to provide concrete listener data.
“It’s the biggest radio station in the world. There’s no way you’re going to find another station that has as many concurrent listeners and audience-wise as Beats 1, period,” Jackson said.
The full piece can be read on The Verge. The success of Beats 1 in streaming exclusive content is interesting and could potentially mark a different way for Apple to handle all of its exclusive content deals in the future, if it indeed is betting big on Beats 1. Read our roundup of what’s next for Beats 1 and Apple Music here.
About Beats 1
Beats 1 (often styled Beats1 or beats1) is a 24/7 music radio station owned and operated by Apple Inc. Apple bought audio equipment maker Beats Electronics in 2014, which included the ownership of Beats' former music service Beats Music, and made Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers responsible for the iTunes Radio service.
"One Dance" is a song by Canadian Toronto-based hip hop recording artist Drake from his fourth studio album, Views (2016). It features guest vocals from Nigerian Afrobeat artist Wizkid and British singer Kyla. The artists co-wrote the dancehall and afrobeat song with its co-producers Nineteen85, DJ Maphorisa, and Noah "40" Shebib, with production assistance from Wizkid. Crazy Cousinz and Kyla also received songwriting credits for the sampling of their 2008 UK funky song "Do You Mind?".
"Can't Stop the Feeling!" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Justin Timberlake for the soundtrack to the film Trolls, for which he serves as the executive music producer. It was written and produced by Timberlake, Max Martin and Shellback. Musically, it is an uptempo disco-pop, soul-pop number with funk influences. The song was released as a single on May 6, 2016, and serviced to contemporary hit radio on May 10, 2016.
Timberlake gave his first televised performance of "Can't Stop the Feeling!" during the interval act of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 grand final. Directed by Mark Romanek, its music video was released on May 16, 2016, and follows Timberlake on a tour to everyday places as he dances through what a typical day might be—it was followed by a number of fan-made videos.
"Work" is a song recorded by Barbadian singer Rihanna for her eighth studio album, Anti (2016), featuring Canadian rapper Drake, the song was released as the lead single from Anti on January 27, 2016 through Westbury Road and Roc Nation.
The song was written by PartyNextDoor, Drake, Rihanna, Monte Moir, Rupert "Sevn" Thomas, Allen Ritter and Matthew Samuels, and was produced by Boi-1da, Sevn Thomas, Ritter, Kuk Harrell and Noah "40" Shebib. The dancehall, reggae-pop and R&B song, contains an interpolation of "If You Were Here Tonight" (1985) performed by Alexander O'Neal. Lyrically, the song incorporates themes of working for money, as well as discussing fragile relationships. The song uses West Indian Patois and Creole.
"My House" is a song by American recording artist Flo Rida from his 2015 EP of the same name. The song was released as the album's third official single on October 13, 2015 in the United States. The song contains samples from "Impeach the President" by The Honey Drippers.
"My House" was chosen as the theme song for WWE's WrestleMania 32 with Hello Friday, also by Flo Rida. The song was also used in ESPN montages for Opening Day 2016 on April 3, 2016 as the first games of the MLB season were being played.
"7 Years" is a song by Danish soul-pop band Lukas Graham from their second studio album, Lukas Graham. The song was released as a digital download on 18 September 2015 by Copenhagen Records.[citation needed] The lyric video was uploaded to YouTube on 17 November 2015, and the music video was uploaded on 15 December 2015.
It topped the charts in Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, and Canada, while reaching the top ten in other European countries, as well as the United States. The song was written by Lukas Forchammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Ristorp, and Morten "Pilo" Pilegaard. The song was produced by Stefan Forrest and Morten Ristorp under their stage name Future Animals, and Pilegaard. The song was mixed by Delbert Bowers and Morten Pilegaard.
"Closer" is a song by American DJ duo The Chainsmokers, featuring American singer Halsey. Andrew Taggart (one half of The Chainsmokers) also provides his vocals in the song. It was released on July 29, 2016, by Disruptor Records and Columbia Records.
The song was written by Andrew Taggart, Ashley Frangipane, Shaun Frank, Frederic Kennett, Isaac Slade and Joe King, while the production was handled by The Chainsmokers. Musically it is an EDM and dance-pop song with a "retro" style synthesizer in the chorus.
"Love Yourself" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Justin Bieber for his fourth studio album Purpose (2015). The song was released first as a promotional single on November 9, 2015, and later was released as the album's third single. It was written by Ed Sheeran, Benny Blanco and Bieber, and produced by Blanco.
An acoustic pop song, "Love Yourself" features an electric guitar and a brief flurry of trumpets as its main instrumentation. During the song, Bieber uses a husky tone in the lower registers. Lyrically, the song is a kiss-off to a narcissistic ex-lover who did the protagonist wrong.
"Don't Let Me Down" is a song by American production duo The Chainsmokers. The song features the vocals of American singer Daya, and was released on February 5, 2016, by Disruptor Records and Columbia Records. The song was written by Andrew Taggart, Emily Warren and Scott Harris. Musically, it is a dance-pop song with trap influences.
"Stressed Out" is a song written and recorded by American musical duo Twenty One Pilots, for their fourth studio album, Blurryface (2015). Written by Tyler Joseph and produced by Mike Elizondo, the lyrics discuss the harsh end of adolescence and the transition to adulthood.
The song was released as a promotional single on April 28, 2015 on the Google Play Store and Amazon, and was issued to top 40 radio stations as the albums third official single on November 10.
"Panda" is the debut single by American rapper Desiigner. The song premiered on December 15, 2015, and was released for digital download on the iTunes Store as a single, before being re-released on February 22, 2016.
The song was written by Desiigner and his producer Menace. "Panda" was heavily sampled by Desiigner's fellow GOOD Music label-mate and founder Kanye West, for "Pt. 2", a song on West's seventh studio album The Life of Pablo, and inspired a number of remixes. The single topped the US Billboard Hot 100 at the end of April 2016. A music video was released on May 10, 2016.[4] It was nominated for best hip hop video at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.
If you're like me or a number of other users whose Apple Music or iCloud Music Library experience was soured by faulty song matching, you may be excited to hear the news that Apple is purportedly fixing how its matching algorithm works. But in order to take full advantage of this upgrade, you'll probably want to reset your iCloud Music Library.
In its infancy, iCloud Music Library did a poor job of matching songs, using metadata instead of the audio files themselves. This led to explicit songs getting confused with clean, cuss-free versions, and studio editions replacing live versions. But now that Apple is rolling out matching technology that creates a fingerprint out of audio, it's a good time to start again.
The process is a bit elaborate, as you're creating a new library in iTunes in order to start over, but it's the best and safest way to handle these files. Using these steps you won't be removing any of your songs from iTunes, which means less risk on your part.
How to Reset an iCloud Music Library
These instructions work the same way on a Mac as they do on a PC, except in certain circumstances where noted.
1. Click iTunes. (On a PC, click Edit)
2. Click Preferences.
3. Uncheck iCloud Music Library.
4. Click Done.
5. Click iTunes.
6. Click Quit iTunes.
7. Hold down Option and open iTunes. (On a PC, hold shift).
8. Click Create Library.9. Write an easy-to-identify library name and click Save.
10. Click iTunes. (On a PC, click Edit)11. Click Preferences.12. Check off iCloud Music Library.
13. Click OK.
14. Your iCloud Music Library will now load. After your songs appear, click Songs in the Library list.
15. Select a song.
16. Click Edit.
17. Click Select All.
18. Click Song.
19. Select Delete.
20. Click Delete Items.
21. Quit iTunes and hold Option (or Shift if on a PC) while opening iTunes again.
22. Click Choose Library.
23. Navigate to your previous iTunes Library and Click Open.
24. Click iTunes. (On a PC, click Edit)
25. Select Preferences.
26. Check the box next to iCloud Music Library.
27. Click OK.
Check the progress of your upload by clicking on the spinning gear in the upper right corner. Once the process completes, your songs should be correctly matched in your iCloud Music Library.
How to re-start iCloud Music Library matching and uploading.
If you have to restart or close iTunes before iCloud Music Library finishes matching your files, the uploading and matching process may need to restart.
