Apple gearing up for Beats 1 Radio debut

It may not be easy to get excited about a new radio station these days. But when it is the Apple-backed Beats 1 Radio component of the upcoming Apple Music service, we can expect a lot of interest.

Former BBC DJ, Zane Lowe, who makes up one third of the initial triumverate of DJs curating the sound of Beats1 (from NY, LA and London, you know, the epicentres of cool music), is hyping up his first on air interview. Lowe will be chatting up iconic rapper and known Dr. Dre cohort, Eminem, as his very first guest. How the world has changed. Eminem famously embarked on a lawsuit against iTunes back in 2009.

That case was eventually settled, and now Eminem is helping kick off Apple's biggest music play since it launched iTunes and the iPod over a decade ago.

In other Apple Music related news, Taylor Swift finally decided to allow her latest album 1989 on Apple's streaming music service after all. The pop star tweeted, "After the events of this week, I've decided to put 1989 on Apple Music...and happily so." Apple Music kicks off in the US on June 30.

Jay-Z's Tidal streaming service is backed by a dream team of musical talent, but will it blend?

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Having that love of music is the foundation that sets us apart from someone that's a tech company that's selling advertisement or selling hardware.

                  -Jay-Z on Tidal

Responding to the seismic shift in music consumption trends, where subscription-based streaming services are quickly surpassing CD sales and even music downloads, Jay-Z rallied some of music's biggest names to back his recently acquired Tidal music streaming service, which he bought for a cool $56 million.

Touted as the first online distribution service owned and operated by artists, artists like Madonna, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Coldplay, Nikki Minaj, Rhianna, Usher, Deadmau5, Jack White and many others will release their new material on Tidal before making it available on other services such as Spotify, Google Play Music or Apple's upcoming Beats-backed streaming service. 

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