Apple Music Seeks Fresh Air

Nashville executives Jay Liepis and Michael Bryan hope to make country radio more inclusive with the genre’s most diverse slate of programming yet

WHEN JAY LIEPIS AND MICHAEL BRYAN WERE

tasked with developing programming for Apple Music Country — the streaming service’s first country radio station — they used terrestrial radio as a road map. “We just did everything they weren’t doing,” says Liepis, head of music business partnerships for Apple Music Nashville. “It was about inclusion and diversity. It was about gender balance ... everything that country typically seemed to struggle with.”

More so than other genres, success for country artists has long been tied to radio airplay. Historically, though, country radio has been one of the least diverse parts of the music industry. A 2019 study from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only 16% of artists across Billboard’s year-end Hot Country charts were women; people of color and queer members of the genre were recognized even less on radio playlists.

Creating diverse programming was “100% our responsibility,” says Bryan, head of Apple Music Country, Radio. “We have to shine a spotlight if we’re ever going to make the change that needs to happen.”

When Apple Music Country launched last August, it curated a 41show lineup that not only highlighted the genre’s most underrepresented communities, but also reflected the diversity of experiences within them. At the heart of its efforts is Color Me Country, hosted by Rissi Palmer, whose 2007 single “Country Girl” made her the first Black woman to hit the Hot Country Songs chart in 20 years. On the show — named for Black country pioneer Linda Martell’s 1970 debut album — Palmer amplifies Black, Latino and Indigenous artists, and the first season focuses specifically on women of color.

Bryan also gave the artist Tiera free rein over two programs — The Tiera Show and Soundcheck Radio — after viewing her experiences as a Black country singer on Instagram. Female hosts remain in the minority on country radio, but Apple Music recruited singer Kelleigh Bannen to host its first-ever country show, Today’s Country, in 2019, and she still helms the station under the new Apple Music Country banner.

Black singer-songwriter BRELAND, whose 2019 country-trap hit “My Truck” pushed boundaries, continues to supply Land of the Bre Radio listeners with more genre-bending songs. And on PROUD Radio With Hunter Kelly — country radio’s first LGBTQ+-themed regular broadcast — veteran journalist Kelly interviews queer country and Americana artists like Brandi Carlile and Waylon Payne on topics such as their coming-out experiences.

Those sessions run alongside exclusive shows from artists Jimmie Allen, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood, among others. (Morgan Wallen’s Happy Hour Radio was pulled after a video of the up-and-comer using a racial slur surfaced in February, further igniting conversations about enduring racism in the country music industry.)

Apple Music Country aims to reach as far as possible, and as with all

Apple Music radio offerings, the channel is available in 165 countries.

“Hopefully, this goes beyond our ecosystem and helps fuel the next version of country music in Nashville,” says Bryan. “It’s one of the most meaningful things that I think most of us have ever done in our careers.”

“WE HAVE TO SHINE A SPOTLIGHT IF WE’RE EVER GOING TO MAKE THE CHANGE THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN.”

—Bryan