Apple Music's Beats 1 station will broadcast from hosts' homes

Office workers aren't the only ones who can work from home during the coronavirus pandemic -- radio DJs can do so, too. Show hosts on Beats 1, Apple Music's internet radio station, will be broadcasting from the safety of their homes starting today. According to Apple, they will use FaceTime on their iPhones to conduct interviews with popular musicians like Elton John and Hayley Williams. It's not clear whether or not the anchors will use iPhones to record the non-interview sections of their shows, but it would be surprising if they opted for smartphones over more professional audio equipment such as condenser microphones and preamps. However, exclusive programs from Stone Age's Josh Homme, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig and more will indeed be recorded on their iPhones.

The fact that internet radio shows can more or less continue as normal could be seen as a testament to the technology and infrastructure in place. Radio hosts have been broadcasting from home studios for years, but they do so with carefully chosen, high-end audio gear. The ability for a DJ or anchor to leverage consumer technology to keep a global radio channel up and running is something that wouldn't have seemed so mundane a decade or two in the past.