In 2024, the Global Wellness Institute reported that the “wellness” economy in the United States has become worth a staggering $1.8 trillion economy. As of 2022, the GDP of the entire world was estimated to be about $100 trillion. The current market valuation of mental health alone is $87 billion. I’m no mathematician, but that means that in 2024 the United States spent 1/100th of the entire world’s goods and services output on feeling good. The irony, so clear it hits like a slap in the face, is that we live in a country in which everyone is deeply unwell. People are dying younger, and when they do, it seems as if they’re angrier, poorer, and more disillusioned than at any point in modern history. The American dream is dead for most swaths of the population, swallowed up by too big-to-fail corporations and CEOs who name their first born child Stock Buyback. So, when Apple Music announced the launch of their very own wellness radio channel, Chill, on Tuesday December 10, I approached it with a healthy amount of skepticism.
Was this a money grab, a hope of latching onto a rapidly rising sector of the economy? Or, does this come from a genuine desire to exist as an antidote to the commodification and playlistification of our entire society, let alone music consumption? The answer exists somewhere in the middle, I suspect—but after two days of immersing myself in Apple’s Chill station, I can’t help but feel like it’s a shelter from an increasingly violent storm.
Chill is hosted by singer and radio host Sabi, who, per Apple, “guides you through a full day of programming by introducing each new set of songs—meant to help you relax, unwind and unplug.” Sabi is also in charge of the station’s Mindful Moments, which are “brief breaks in programming that serve as reminders to be present and Chill.” Sabi is the day-to-day guide for the program, but Apple also enlisted Zane Lowe, Brian Eno, and Stephan Moccio to handle their own shows.
On Sundays, Lowe hosts Zane Needs to Chill. On Friday, the king of ambient music, Brian Eno, will host AMBER Radio. Moccio’s Feel More Radio will run every Saturday. Granted, I’ve only been listening to the station for a few days (first episodes of these specialized shows aired on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week for the Chill launch), but the reason why Chill has been a success — or, at the very least, has made me less aggro about the absolutely fucked state of everything — is because they entrusted the project with artists and entertainers that are not only good at their job but genuinely interested in music being a balm, a safe-haven from *gestures wildly at nothing in particular* all the stuff out there.
Art consumption is endless and we’re desperately unequipped to learn, study, and immerse ourselves in all the things we wish to experience. This is what being born and dying is all about. The list grows longer, never shorter. During my Zoom call with Brian Eno, he explained how stark this notion felt as a 76-year-old. We were discussing the things he does to “chill,” which felt like a very silly thing to be asking one of the great musical geniuses this world has ever seen. Alas, I should have expected such a hero to answer as thoughtfully as he did, but still, I was taken aback by the honesty of his revelation. “I have a very big library, and I recently had the stunning realization that at my age I will not reread many of the books that I had always hoped to reread. For instance, one of the great books I’ve been looking forward to rereading for years is Richard Massey’s biography of Peter the Great. It’s one of the great books in my opinion, but it’s a very long book and I’ve got such a heap of books to read,” he explained with some resignation. “I should probably never get to that one again. That’s sort of sad, realizing there are old friends you are not ever going to see again.”
