Apple Music starts offering replays of Beats 1 shows, joins Billboard charts

Over the past few days Apple Music DJs like Zane Lowe and Julie Adenuga have started sharing full replays of their individual shows on the Connect social network without any official announcement from Apple. The move seems aimed at capitalizing on the most popular aspect of Apple Music’s service so far – programs hosted by real live DJs –  and The Verge is speculating that Apple Music may expand on that success in the near future. The site reports that Apple is contractually allowed to launch up to five more Beats radio stations without renegotiating deals with artists and labels, saying another station based in Asia or Australia could be particularly appealing since Beats 1 is currently only live 12 hours a day. While industry sources have said labels are still skeptical that all of Apple Music’s current free-trial users will stick around once they have to start paying, the service is making other inroads to greater recognition within the music industry. Billboard announced that is has added Apple Music to the list of streaming providers used to compile data for the Billboard 200, Hot 100 and other charts, weighing streams from the service alongside those of competitors like Google Play, Spotify, Rhapsody, Amazon Prime and others.