Apple has made some fairly surprising hires in the past, but perhaps none have been quite as surprising as Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe. The 41-year-old is leaving the BBC after almost twelve years to take up a mysterious new role in Cupertino.
Lowe has long been a major figure in British music. Not only has he hosted a popular show on the country’s biggest station, but he is also known for uncovering emerging talent, and has even written and produced for some of the biggest British artists, including Example and Sam Smith.
Since joining the BBC in 2003, Lowe has picked up the gold Radio Academy Award for best music broadcaster three times, while his show was named the best on radio at the NME Awards four times. Lowe will host his final Radio 1 show on March 5 before moving out to California.
“I want to thank everyone at Radio 1 for their support and friendship,” Lowe said in a BBC blog post. “The station has allowed me to share incredible music with the country’s best music fans.”
It’s not completely clear what Lowe’s role will be at Apple, but he will presumably play a big part in curating stations and helping shape new music discovery features for Beats Music and iTunes Radio. Unless Apple plans to have him mixing it up in Caffe Macs at lunchtimes, which seems unlikely.
Source: BBC,
