Surprise DJ/technology news as Radio 1 DJ and music producer Zane Lowe announced he is moving to Cupertino to work at a little place you may have heard of called Apple. Not much is known of the move, apart from that Lowe will be working on the iTunes Radio offer. Given his experience he could be enlisted to create a more curated approach to the service, which may include playlists and interviews.
This has raised questions regarding Apple’s plans to reconquer the music industry, with rumours of an on-demand music service being a major part of its future. With sales of digital music dropping, and streaming numbers increasing, it feels like the pioneers have now fallen behind and have some catching up to do with the likes of Spotify and Pandora. The addition of Zane Lowe follows a range of recent music acquisitions, which includes Beats, and with it Beats Music (a music streaming service) and co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, who are now Apple employees.
Beyond Apple, it’s been a fun week for streaming news, as four NEVER HEARD BEFORE Spice Girls tracks were leaked online (although bad news for girl power fans – they’ve been taken down). They are probably not likely to reappear here… as Spotify let us know what music we’re all getting down to. There are 2.5 million user-made playlists titled ‘sex’. Two point five million… that’s a lot of getting down. ‘Intro’ by The XX is apparently the song most likely to appear, making us think the band should probably now change their name to ‘The XXX’.
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