Grammy-nominated DJ Zane Lowe leaving flagship BBC Radio show, joining Apple

Zane Lowe. | Source: BBC

Zane Lowe, who has helmed BBC Radio 1's widely-praised evening show since 2003, will sign off on March 5, according to the BBC. Lowe is known as a musical tastemaker and is credited with jumpstarting the careers of artists like Adele and Gnarls Barkley by featuring them on his show.

Lowe has won numerous awards as a DJ, and was a 2015 Grammy nominee for his work producing Sam Smith's standout album In the Lonely Hour.

News of Lowe's move comes amid reports of heightened ambitions for Apple's music unit. The iPhone maker is reportedly no longer satisfied with merely being a music distributor, and instead has set a goal "to be the music business."

While it is unclear what Lowe will do at Apple, the company has placed a high degree of emphasis on musical curation, especially after acquiring Beats Music and bringing in cofounders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

"We get a subscription music service that we believe is the first subscription service that really got it right," Apple chief Tim Cook said when discussing the deal. "They had the insight early on to know how important human curation is. That technology by itself wasn't enough — that it was the marriage of the two that would really be great, and produce a feeling in people that we want to produce."