Apple’s Beats 1 radio station, which launched alongside Apple Music in iOS 8.4 has had its first six weeks analyzed, revealing the most played artists, songs and genres.
The research was conducted by Quartz, which found some interesting trends.
In the top artists it’s not entirely surprising to find The Weeknd heading the number of plays, followed closely by Drake – both those acts appeared at WWDC during Apple’s keynote presentation.
Here’s the full list of top artists:
Most played genres provide a relatively positive mix in the top five. However, top-placed Hip-Hop/Rap and second-placed Alternative have featured around twice as much as third to fifth placed Electronic, R&B/Soul, and Pop.
The list of genres played on Beats 1:
Quartz also took a look at the most played – in the Apple top 20:
On the face of it, Beats 1 has a wide mix of genres, but plays mostly the same songs as many popular music-orientated stations do. However, Quartz goes further in their conclusions towards the data:
“The song data also challenge Apple’s insistence that Beats 1 is “a truly global listening experience.” Nearly every song is in English and produced by artists from the US, UK, or Canada. Apple’s one and only radio station has proven to be popular so far, but imagine how many more listeners it might get by capitalizing on Asia’s K-Pop explosion.”
The data also acknowledges other trends, seemingly confirming some complaints that Apple plays ‘too much’ hip-hop, though Quartz acknowledges that ‘too-much’ is subjective, it is the most played genre on Beats 1.
View the findings in full detail.
Read more: Understanding the iCloud Music Library in Apple Music