Apple Music is marking its 10-year anniversary by doubling down on its original vision: music as experience, not commodity. On Monday, the tech giant pulled back the curtain on its new 15,000-square-foot creative complex—Apple Music Studios, a next-gen content hub located just steps from its Culver City headquarters.
The sprawling facility is equal parts recording studio, broadcast center, soundstage, and cultural clubhouse—designed to give artists a turnkey space to create, collaborate, and connect with fans across audio and visual mediums.
“We want this to be an open house for artists, songwriters or any creator,” says Apple Music’s VP Oliver Schusser, speaking exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter. “This is our interpretation of the intersection between technology and the arts.”
Built Like Apple, For Artists
The aesthetic is signature Apple: clean black walls, warm wood floors, and subtle pops of color. But what powers the space is less about design and more about adaptability. There are two large radio studios fitted with custom spatial audio speakers and hidden wall-mounted cameras—ready for everything from live shows to cozy jam sessions. Adjacent is a 4,000-square-foot soundstage, complete with edit bays, a photo studio, and a spatial audio mixing room.
“We intentionally made it so it could be highly adaptable to any sort of creative,” says Apple Music co-head Rachel Newman. “It’s a blank space on purpose. Artists can walk in and shape it to their vision—whether that’s a photo shoot, a writing session, or a full-blown video concept.”
The space will serve as the new home for several Apple Music Radio programs, including The Zane Lowe Show, while acting as a launchpad for new forms of visual-first programming.
A Decade in the Making
The opening comes exactly ten years after Apple Music launched in June 2015, at a time when many believed streaming would reduce music to passive background noise.
“There was a fear that customers would just press a button and play music in the background,” Schusser recalls. “That’s why we invested in Apple Music Radio. We wanted to create a space where artists could express themselves. The new studio expands on that mission.”
Natalie Eshaya, head of Apple Music Radio, says the evolution from audio to audio-visual storytelling was inevitable: “At the root is that classic radio DNA—hosts speaking directly to listeners, artists connecting to fans. But we’ve evolved. Now there’s a visual element to almost everything we do.”
10 Years, 1 Billion Streams Later
To celebrate the milestone, Apple Music launched a slate of anniversary programming beginning with “Don’t Be Boring: The Birth of Apple Music Radio” hosted by Lowe and Ebro Darden. The retrospective kicked off live at 6 a.m. PST and runs through the day, with a special three-hour artist-filled livestream set for 4 p.m.
Starting July 1, Apple Music will begin rolling out its Top 500 Most-Streamed Songs of All Time, culminating with the Top 100 on July 5. Users will also get access to a new All-Time Replay feature, letting them see their personal streaming history since they joined the platform.
While Apple didn’t disclose development costs for the new studio space, insiders suggest the investment was substantial—part of a broader push to position Apple Music as not just a streaming service, but a full-spectrum creative ecosystem.
“Radio was always our front door,” says Newman. “Now, we’ve opened the whole house.”
One of the studios at Apple Music’s new studio space in Culver City. (Courtesy of Apple Music)
