I've been using Apple Music for about a month now, and I really enjoy using the service. The song recommendations are great, and it is fun to listen to just about any song I can think of, any time I want, even if I have never purchased it. One aspect of the service that I used during the first week but then moved away from is the Beats 1 radio service. It's nicely done and has some great DJs, but most of the time that I tuned to Beats 1, they were playing songs that didn't appeal to me. I knew that there were shows more likely to appeal to my tastes — such as Elton John's Rocket Hour, a show in which Elton John plays a mix of old and new songs from his favorite artists — but the show never seemed to be on when I tuned in. Thus, I wished that there was a way that I could go back in time and listen to a Beats 1 show that I missed. Something like a DVR for Apple Music.
Fortunately, Apple is starting to add this feature, if you know where to look for it. Here is how to find it.
Open the Apple Music app, and tap on the Radio button in the center of the bottom row. Then tap on the Beats 1 logo at the top half of the screen. The next screen gives you the option to Listen Now and shows you upcoming shows, but scroll down past that until you get to the large square icons to show Featured Shows. Now find the show that you want to listen to, such as Elton John's Rocket Hour, and tap that square icon.
Now you will see the page for that show and two buttons near the middle of the screen: Playlists and Connect. To listen to a past show, tap Connect. You'll then see a list of past shows. For Elton John's show, I'm currently only seeing the most recent show from this week, but for other DJs I see even more shows. Tap the show and it will start playing.
When you are listening to a live show on Beats 1, you see the track information for each song as it is playing, which is useful if you want to favorite that specific song or add that specific song to your own music collection. But when you are replaying a show that previously aired, Apple Music treats the entire show as it if it one long song.
But there is still a way to get individual song information. On the screen that I mentioned before that has buttons for Playlists and Connect, tap on the Playlists button. (You can do this while you are listening to the replay of the show.) Then select the playlist that corresponds to the show to which you are listening, Now you will see a list of each song played on the show — with the exception of any songs that were played in the show but don't yet exist on Apple Music.
Of course, you could also just listen to the songs directly from the playlist, but then you would miss all of the DJ commentary between the songs, which is usually a big part of what makes a good show a good show. How can you have Elton John's Rocket Hour without Elton John? Or St. Vincent’s Mixtape Delivery Service show without hearing why the song was selected for that person's mixtape?
I'm thrilled to see that Apple is finding ways to make Beats 1, and Apple Music as a whole, even better. This single feature has made Beats 1 infinitely more useful for me.