Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Spotify aims to rival Beats One with two radio-inspired streaming options

spotify 40 million paid subscribers mighty audio streaming mp3 player 8
Spotify has once again taken aim at Apple Music, this time via a series of newly launched radio shows that the Swedish streaming service hopes will compete with Zane Lowe’s Beats One offerings.

The two new shows both offer special insight into the minds of famed musicians. The first, called AM/PM, will feature artists such as famed French electronic producer Jean Michel Jarre and Terry Hall of iconic ska band The Specials, among others, talking about the music that they listen to before and after a day spent creating new sounds. The second new show, Secret Genius, will be used to showcase the stories of the producers and songwriters behind some of the world’s biggest hits, including big names like British producer James Blake.

Unlike traditional radio-formatted shows, the new original series are available for on-demand playback, and come segmented in short clips which clock in at under five minutes each.

Though the service did launch the two new shows with relatively big names, it still has a ways to go with the new Beats One contenders. Apple already has extended interviews with the world’s biggest names in music — artists like Drake and Adele — under its belt, and routinely premieres some of the world’s most-anticipated music via its internet radio service.

Still, as the war for streaming supremacy rages on, with each service gaining approximately a million new paid subscribers per month — Spotify recently reported it had reached 35 million paying members — any competition that involves new projects is good for consumers.

Whether or not either of the shows will continue long term remains to be seen, but it will likely have to do with listener response on the streaming service.

“There’s an experimental edge to what we’re doing: Let’s try this out and give it a go,” Spotify’s head of original content Rob Fitzpatrick said to Music Ally. “These are ways of testing out ideas.”

Editors' Recommendations

Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
Radio giant iHeartMedia sets its sights on Spotify with two new streaming services
sony extra bass xb headphones speakers ces 2017 mdr xb950b1

After a month-long beta phase, broadcast radio colossus iHeartMedia has released two new subscription-based music services, taking aim at popular paid services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.

The two services, called iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access will cost subscribers $5 and $10 per month, respectively, and can already be accessed on desktop, iOS, and Android, and devices like Apple TV and Samsung Smart TV, with Google Home and Sonos integration slated to begin shortly.

Read more
Look out, Spotify — iHeartRadio crashes the subscription music scene
iheartmedia others propose hiding paid programming disclosures online iheartradio payola

It's estimated that Americans spend more than 25 hours every week listening to music, so really, we should be celebrating the entrance of yet another music streaming service to the already crowded scene. Joining Spotify, Pandora, and other similar services is now iHeartRadio, which this week released beta versions of its paid subscription plans for on-demand music.

While you may be familiar with the free version of iHeartRadio (because, you know, the radio is free), the company says that its newest offering "turbocharges the live radio experience, instead of being another me-too version of Spotify and all the rest.” For $5 a month, you can listen to the radio as you used to, but when you come across a song you're particularly intrigued by, you can instantly replay it, save it to your custom station, and gradually curate your "My Music" list, filled with all your favorite tunes. And of course, if you don't like a song, you'll be able to skip it, and as many others as you'd like.

Read more
Apple CEO Tim Cook rewards Drake for reaching one billion streams
chatter charity celebrity chat drake views booklet 1

Drake is starting to become the Michael Jordan to Apple's Nike. Earlier on Monday on Instagram -- the default platform for all rapper press releases -- Drake released a picture of his plaque for his album Views surpassing one billion streams on Apple Music.

Drake's Views was released April 29 and was an Apple Music exclusive for two weeks. He was presented the plaque by Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple's senior vice president Eddy Cue backstage at the rap star's Summer Sixteen tour stop in San Jose, California at the SAP Center on Sunday night. Drake is unequivocally the poster child for music streaming as Views is now his second album to attain one billion streams, after his 2015 album If You're Reading This It's Too Late amassed 1.08 billion streams. He also becomes the first artist to attain more than one billion streams in a year on two separate streaming services after becoming Spotify's most streamed artist of 2015 with 1.8 billion streams.

Read more