George Ergatoudis, the head of music at Radio 1, has called Apple a "huge disruptive monster" at the technology company poached a number of key staff from the British corporation. Speaking at a global conference in Los Angeles about the issues facing radio, Ergatoudis said Apple's "piles of cash" could change the industry forever.

Zane LoweZane Lowe jumped ship from BBC Radio 1 to Apple

The US giant is to announce plans for a streaming service in June, though the BBC boss said he believes Apple is building a service with a "huge amount of learning from traditional radio" - an opinion strengthened by the company's poaching of Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe in March. Apple is believed to have also hired Lowe's former producer and a number of senior staff from Radio 1 and BBC Introducing.

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Ergatoudis added that the streaming market is already saturated and that these services are "the sharks taking our audience away". He warned that Apple will be the biggest threat to radio stations globally when they finally announce their plans.

BBC Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper, speaking alongside Ergatoudis, spoke about Radio 1's commitment to its YouTube channel, saying, "Listeners spend three hours a week less with the station on average.

"Where do they spend time? On YouTube. The answer is to visualise a lot of our content."

Cooper also insisted that content has to be meaningful and engaging and will include the usual live performances but also unexpected one, too.

"When you get famous people to do something different, that's great content."

More: Zane Lowe on why he's swapping Radio 1 for Apple