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The first 24 hours of Beats 1, according to Twitter

Beats 1, Apple Musicu2019s 24/7 worldwide radio station, launched with polarized reactions on Tuesday. Here are some of the best tweets.
Leah Yamshon
By Leah Yamshon
Associate Managing Editor, Macworld JUL 1, 2015 6:53 am PDT

One of Apple Music’s key features is Beats 1, its always-on radio-like broadcast. Leading up to its launch, Apple promised that Beats 1 and its worldwide station would deliver a shared experience for all music fans—and what better place is there than Twitter to talk about shared experiences? The Twitter community did not disappoint, as users live-tweeted their impressions of Beats 1 around the clock on launch day.

Signing on with Zane Lowe

Los Angeles-based DJ Zane Lowe kicked off the broadcast at 9:00 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday—he’ll be leading the Beats 1 effort with Julie Adenuga from London and Ebro Darden from New York. “We spent the last three months trying to build this radio station, and now we can build no more,” Lowe said, shortly before pressing “play” on the first song. “Now we must launch.”

That first song? “City,” by an unsigned band called Spring King.

The band was stoked!

Others had no idea what was going on.

One thing was for sure: Lowe was excited. Thrilled. So over the top enthusiastic that he often couldn’t contain himself, shouting “worldwide!” “always on!” and “fire!” while songs were still playing. “To the early adopters, to those hungry for music, from town to town, from city to city, into the unknown we go!” Tracks also featured the Beats 1 tagline throughout. No one could forget that they were listening to Beats 1 if they tried.

It’s radio, but on the Internet

The reactions to Beats 1 as a concept were mixed. Some people loved it.

Others were less impressed.

And some people just want to take this music and do whatever they want with it, which is not how streaming services work.

People were quick to discover some of Apple Music’s features within Beats 1.

…although this one doesn’t always work, thanks to usage rights.

And there’s been some confusion over censorship. 

St. Vincent’s Mixtape Delivery Service was the first special show to air, and it received high praise. We’re looking forward to hearing more artist-based content, thanks to her heartwarming broadcast. 

iTunes drama, broadcast woes, and all sorts of opinions

Apple Music was quick to launch on iOS—it was available as soon as the iOS 8.4 update became available on Tuesday morning. But the desktop version, which is linked through iTunes, was slow to roll out. The iTunes update didn’t hit until late on Tuesday afternoon, and it didn’t go unnoticed.

Then, starting at around 8:30 p.m. Pacific, Beats 1 had a brief outage. It started back up, 30-ish minutes later, with no explanation. Oops.

And there was some weirdness, especially when the listener requests started flowing in.

Come on, you know you’re a little curious to see what Jaden Smith has in store for us when his Beats 1 show launches on July 4. I hope he wears the white Batman getup he wore to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding.

jayden smith batman costume

Jaden’s best look. 

The show went on, and the Apple Music chatter continued… even if there were a few more bugs.

All in all, Beats 1 had a pretty good first day

If you’re not quite convinced yet, that’s ok—you still have three months to decide if you’d like to pay for a subscription to Apple Music, and Beats 1 will remain a free feature. But next time you decide to give it a listen, try this classic tip:

, Associate Managing Editor

Leah Yamshon is a former Macworld editor.

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