About Music One
Music One was launched in May, 2001 by UK Born Richard Cowell.
Richard's radio career started at the age of 13 with a 2 week internship at Commercial radio station Minster FM in York, UK. During his 6 years with the company he progressed from the promotions department to the Jukebox show with Dave Lee, through the production department to become the Head of Music for both Minster FM in York, and Yorkshire Coast Radio in Scarborough.
In late 1998 Richard was offered the opportunity to move to New York City and break into the emerging world of online media with the UK Government. It was during this time he discovered the technology that would make Music One a reality and thanks to the support of the PSquared company in the UK Richard launched Music One out in May of 2001.
Music One was originally positioned as a Top 40 station playing a mix of top 40 hits from the UK and the USA. Slowly as the station matured, the music became more dance oriented and the Music One audience started to grow.
Richard was creating a dance radio format that had not been heard before.
On air talent "Dave London" and "Crown Jules" made their Music One on-air debut in 2001 as did Mix DJ "DJ XLR8".
In mid 2002 Richard closed down Music One until more reliable hosting for the station could be secured. Music One returned in September 2002 to a very warm welcome from its largest audience to date. The station was technically based in the UK but continued to be operated from NYC.
Music One relocated to the West Village in NYC in early 2004.
2004-2007 were amazing years for Music One. 'Crown Jules and Rich' became regular on-air hosts. Music One was ranked #18 in the first ever Arbitron internet radio ratings in 2004 and became one of the top 15 radio stations at shoutcast.com pulling in almost 4,000 concurrent listeners at peak times.
Music One was nominated for "Best Online Dance Station" at the International Dance Music Awards in Miami in 2005.
Resident DJ's became part of the Music One weekend schedule adding more specialist content over the weekends.' Crown Jules and Rich' recorded their very first Top 20 show on New Years eve 2006 into 2007. The show was calculated from Music One listeners emailing in their favorite songs of the year to be compiled in time for the New Year.
In early 2007, the future of internet radio was looking uncertain so Richard decided to close the station indefinitely until affordable licensing could be secured. "The Last Dance" aired on Monday, May 28, 2007 (Memorial day evening in the USA).
Richard relaunched Music One in May 2008 one full year after taking the break. The stream now licensed through third party website Loudcity.com continues to broadcast commercial free 24/7.
DJ Chris Lewis returned to Music One with his weekly hour long mix-show in Summer 2009. Thanks to great listener feedback through the website and facebook, Chris started to present a new 30 minute show "Dance Evolution" on Music One in February 2010.
DJ Joel North was added to the Music One weekend DJ Lineup in July 2010.
Music One continues to operate a completely commercial free audio stream thanks to voluntary contributions from the Music One listener community. (Check the Supper Music One link above for details)
'Rate the Music' was introduced on the website in 2009 enabling listeners the ability to vote 1 through 5 on each song played making it possible for 'Crown Jules and Rich' to host the top 20 of 2009 on December 26, 2009.
Richard partnered with software developer Bobby Wallace in early 2010 to develop an iPhone application for the station. The free application was launched in April of 2010 and is available in the apple app store (search for Music One). The apps visual design came from Matthew Smoluch, the designer of the Music One logo.
A new website was launched in 2010 with the help of Mark Kinnan and long term design partner Matthew Smoluch. The website is far more interactive than previous versions of the site featuring not only community forums, but the ability to comment on individual articles and songs as they're playing.
Further development is planned for the iPhone application in 2011 to provide (amongst other features) background playing (introduced to the iPhone in 2010), and airtunes support.
As of publishing (January 2011) there is no active development for windows phone or android. If you are a developer with an passion for dance music and an interest to partner on this project, please contact us using the contact link above.
'Crown Jules and Rich' once again hosted the annual Music One Top 20 chart show on January 1, 2011 to rave reviews from Music One supporters and dance fans around the world.
Welcome back to Music One, and for those of you who are new here... a VERY BIG WELCOME!
We hope you love what you hear! Visit the contact page to get in touch!
