Zane Lowe used to work for Ben Cooper and Radio 1 before he left to help create Beats 1 for Apple. Now they’ve gotten together again, on stage at the Radio Festival in London.

Here are a few snippets from Music Week’s transcription of their conversation.

On signing with Apple:

I was at my kitchen table with my wife and my manager. And Apple do contracts really nicely – real attention to detail. I signed it and [laughs] my manager took a photo, it was so funny, I was like [strikes classic new centre forward signing pose]. He said, What shall we do with this? And I was like, Nothing! Don’t let anyone see that. Ever! It was cool, it was a moment.

On music as a core value of Beats 1:

What works in America might not work in Tokyo and might not work in Mexico City.

But we know Tokyo and Mexico City love Beats 1, so we’ve found a language that is common, and I believe that language is music. I loved waking up and listening to a good breakfast show when I was living in London, but every time I hear someone talk to a reality TV star, or talk about what’s in the papers, you’re off message from what I want, which is music. So I put the spotlight entirely on music. I’m bringing it back to music every single time. Because that’s what I know and that’s what Trent Reznor and Jimmy Iovine and Eddy Cue told me to do: We’re here for music, it’s about music, focus in music, play great music and make as much noise as you possibly can for music.

On measuring success:

When I said to Apple, What is success? Because I come from a ratings system where I’m told I’m either up or down. Is that what we’re gonna do? Are you gonna give it to me every day? They said, No, we have our way of dealing with numbers. Apple don’t share numbers. So I said, How do I find out? They said, Noise. Go out and make as much noise as you can, and that’s what we’ve been doing. You said some rightful things about the job you’re doing at the BBC, so allow me one: we are loud as fuck right now. Maybe our meter isn’t an abacus, maybe our meter is a volume meter.

And yes, we have data, we’re Apple, they probably have some data for me on the percentage of what I’ve said is right or wrong straight after this, but the point is that Beats 1 is there to create noise for music. We work with incredibly exciting DJs and amazing artists. We gave 70% of the station’s real estate to artists and said, You do it. You do it. And by the way, artist-led radio is an opportunity, not an invention.

Lots more to this. Great read. Full of little insights into the birth of Beats 1.