100 Best Albums Radio

The Story of Classical is your essential nine-part companion guide to classical music. In each of our commentaries, we unlock the mystery and beauty of every musical period—from the Middle Ages to the present day—by chronicling an encounter between vital figures in music history.

On his namesake show and New Music Daily, Apple Music 1’s flagship shows, host Zane Lowe brings users unparalleled music knowledge with headline interviews, breaking news, and emerging music from around the globe every day. It’s become the world’s go-to for the best brand-new music, sure, but it’s also popular music’s premier confessional booth: Day after day, Zane—who’s also Apple Music’s global creative director and co-head of artist relations—gets the biggest, most elusive superstars, from Justin Bieber to Taylor Swift to Kanye West, to let their guards down—laughs, tears, and news-making quotes are the norm. “I’m a curious person, I ask questions, and I guess if I'm passionate about something, I'll talk about it and engage people about it. I want to start a conversation and learn,” Zane explains of his approach. “Because the more you share, the more you learn, and vice versa. It’s just a circle that keeps spinning.” Zane earns guests’ trust with a music obsessive’s curiosity and enthusiasm, compassionate questioning, and firsthand music knowledge of life as an artist—he started his music career recording and performing, and continues to write, produce, and record. “The artist side of it, that really drives what I do,” he explains. “I'm not a conventional media-type personality. I’m no good at being a host, really. I'm not a journalist. I don't write, I'm not a writer. What I do is feel and translate.” Check out Zane on The Zane Lowe Show every Monday through Thursday on Apple Music 1 at 9 am LA/12 pm NYC/5 pm LDN and New Music Daily every Friday at 9 am LA, 12 pm NY, and 5 pm LDN.

Composer and pianist Alexis Ffrench is one of today’s most popular classical musicians. His work taps into the vast musical galaxy—from Bach and Debussy to Hollywood, gospel, and beyond—which makes him the perfect host for Classical Connections Radio, a show that takes listeners along exhilarating and often unexpected pathways through classical music. “I want to present classical in the way I believe it’s meant to be presented—as beautiful music that’s there to be enjoyed and without barriers,” he tells Apple Music. “We’re going to be zipping from here to there, but everything is going to be connected and curated. I see myself as a musical concierge!” Classical Connections Radio features the best new releases, interviews with exciting stars, and a few surprises, too. In his “Sampology” feature, Alexis unlocks the classical roots of a recent chart hit, while we get to hear his incredible improvisational skills in “60 Second Sonata” as he spontaneously crafts a piece of music at the piano, inspired by a listener. And in “Journeys,” he finds the influences in his own work through the composers and artists who have formed his musical DNA over the years. “The powerful thing about music is that it can be like these emotional postcards from various points in your life,” he says, “which I find so beautiful.” If Classical Connections Radio is about gathering different musical strands, it’s also about bringing together a musical community. “Classical music is not about dates or understanding different periods. It’s people, it’s emotions, and it’s love. That’s why it’s so dear to me.” Tune in to Classical Connections Radio with Alexis Ffrench on Apple Music 1 every Saturday at 10 am PT/6 pm UK.

London-based Matt Wilkinson first bubbled up as a writer and editor at renowned UK music magazine NME, where he reported on artists who were changing pop culture one song at a time. His first interview was with Amy Winehouse, in a cemetery in Bristol, when she was one of the biggest names in music—a foundational experience for Matt. “Even though I was totally inexperienced,” he says, “that Amy interview was life-changing for me. When she realized I was there to talk about music rather than her private life, she just came alive—waxing lyrical about ’60s girl groups, hip-hop, the lot. This was the first time I’d ever sat eye-to-eye with a big-name musician and really connected with them. And forging that connection is still what I aim to do when I speak to artists today.” As the host of his namesake show on Apple Music, Matt brings that sense of music history and connection to the air, mining the most interesting new music, chronicling the best of the UK scene, and telling the stories behind the songs of the day with revealing interviews and more. But above all? He’s a music fan obsessed with the idea that “there are still classic songs waiting to be discovered,” he says. “I’m forever looking for the 'hairs on the back of the neck' feeling to happen. That unnameable, rare thing where you hear a song and it suddenly changes your life. It happens every so often and it's the best thing ever.” Hear The Matt Wilkinson Show every Monday through Friday on Apple Music 1 at 4 am LA/7 am NYC/12 pm LDN.

Rap isn’t just a genre, it’s a way of life. And Rap Life is where people who live and breathe the culture come for their fix of everything popping in the world of hip-hop. Apple Music's weekly Rap Life show will go beyond our playlist of the same name and even deeper into the culture. You’ll hear from Ebro Darden and other Apple Music personalities in a mix of new music, artist interviews, and conversations about the tracks and trends shaping the state of rap today. If it happened this week in rap, it's on Rap Life, a show on Apple Music 1. Hear it every Friday at 10 a.m. LA, 1 p.m. NY, 6 p.m. LDN.

Dans À l’écoute, notre équipe invite les artistes qui font l’actu musicale du moment. Face au micro, ils évoquent leur album à venir et partagent les titres qu’ils ont écoutés récemment.