There are announcements that require fireworks, dramatic pauses, and someone in the corner saying “this changes everything” with suspicious intensity. This one requires headphones.

We are very proud to announce that Sandy Times Radio is now officially curating MENA playlists for Apple Music. Yes, Apple Music. Casual. Completely normal. No one here is smiling at their laptop.

The partnership marks an important step for STR: a chance to bring our curatorial approach, regional knowledge, and very serious habit of sending each other tracks at unreasonable hours to one of the world’s most respected music platforms. The playlists will be updated monthly and will live on our dedicated Apple Music profile, creating a new space for listeners to discover the sounds, scenes, moods, and communities shaping the region today.

To understand what this collaboration really means — beyond the very nice feeling of seeing our name in the right place — we spoke with Kito Jempere, our Creative Director, and Tatyana Andrianova, STR Editorial Playlist Curator.

For Kito, the partnership felt natural from the start. “Apple Music is a premium platform for music experiences,” he says. “It isn't about pushing numbers to the front, chasing hype, or focusing on virality. Apple Music is about creating a deeper connection between listeners and the music they engage with.”

That connection matters to us. Streaming may have taken over the world, as streaming tends to do, but listening can still be thoughtful, emotional, and textured. Kito puts it simply: “In today’s world, Apple Music feels like the closest digital equivalent to that physical experience. It approaches music with mood, atmosphere, understanding, and, most importantly, love and respect.”

And yes, we do enjoy being dramatic about music. But in this case, the drama is justified.

Kito also notes that, across the region, only a limited number of partners become curators of official Apple Music playlists. These are usually major festivals, major artists, influential radio stations, and cultural institutions. “So, it is a great honour that our refined and genuine love for music resonated with Apple Music,” he says. “For us, this partnership feels very organic. We are aligned in our taste, our listening culture, and our shared respect for music.”

In other words: the vibes matched, but professionally.

The first playlist is Deep Research: MENA SOUNDS — a curated deep dive into the sonic DNA of the MENA region.

Traditional melodies, folk and spiritual music sit next to contemporary pop, indie, electronic, and experimental tracks. The idea is not to place the past in a museum cabinet and nod at it politely. It is to show how heritage lives, moves, mutates, and appears in today’s music in ways that feel alive rather than decorative.

Kito describes Deep Research as a reflection of STR’s approach to musical discovery: “careful listening, contextual understanding, and a desire to go beyond the obvious.”

This is the playlist for anyone who has ever wanted to understand the region not through a slogan, but through texture. A rhythm. A vocal line. A synth that somehow knows more than you do.

Tatyana explains that the playlist is rooted in regional identity, but not trapped by it. “MENA isn't a sealed-off scene, it is a node in a global network,” she says. “A listener here moves from Arabic indie to a Lagos producer to a Berlin cut in one sitting — so the balance isn't a quota, it is contextual.”

That is exactly the point. Deep Research: MENA SOUNDS isn't a genre exercise. It is a listening journey. One that asks: what does the region sound like when you stop looking only at the surface?

The second playlist, What MENA Listens To, is a snapshot of what is really playing in headphones, cars, cafés, venues, and probably at least one extremely stylish kitchen somewhere in Dubai.

This playlist looks beyond the biggest hits and focuses on tracks that are already moving through the region: songs on the verge of becoming local favourites, music passed between friends, heard in sets, saved in private playlists, and quietly preparing to become unavoidable.

Kito describes it as a playlist focused on “the sound of the streets — what is already being formed and listened to in Dubai, by both locals and expats.”

The key word here is formed. Not imposed. Not packaged. Not decided by a mysterious boardroom of people wearing very white trainers. Formed by listeners, DJs, communities, cities, and the strange magic of someone playing the right track at the right time.

Tatyana says: “We started from listening behaviour, not from genre. Conversations with artists, DJs, label people across the region — what is in their personal rotation, what plays in cafes, taxis, clubs. From there — three playlists, and three angles.”

So, What MENA Listens To isn't a chart with better manners. It is a living snapshot of taste in motion. It follows how people actually listen, how music crosses borders, and how regional identity exists inside a global flow.

As Tatyana puts it: “Local means connected, never enclosed.”

The third playlist is MENA Local Heroes, a monthly guest-curated series spotlighting the people, spaces, and communities shaping the region’s sound from within.

For the first edition, we invited Honeycomb Hi-Fi, Dubai’s finest (and our favourite) listening bar, to take over. A sensible choice, really. Where else would one begin if not with a place where music is treated with the level of care usually reserved for rare ceramics and very nervous sourdough starters?

This first MENA Local Heroes playlist brings together pre-club selections from Honeycomb’s residents and extended family: BCM, eLo, PHO, Gabriel Green, Tommy Outside, Jayesh, Somalie, Diamond Setter, Pepelz, Dan Greenpeace, EYJEY, Hani J, Spiky Flave, Shadi Megallaa, Semir Lajmi, and Kito Jempere.

The concept is simple and charming: each selector chose one track they listen to before going out to a party, night event, or club. The result isn't just a playlist, but a little emotional map of the moments before the night begins.

Kito says Honeycomb was the natural starting point. “Honeycomb is more than just a venue. It represents a community,” he says. “Behind it is a whole network of artists, selectors, DJs, collectors, and music lovers who are actively shaping the local scene.”

Rather than highlighting one artist, STR wanted to highlight a whole ecosystem. “The playlist was built from those selections,” Kito explains. “In that sense, it captures the emotional and musical atmosphere of Honeycomb from the inside — through the people who make the place what it is.”

This is what MENA Local Heroes is about: not only the names on flyers, but the rooms, rituals, friendships, and listening habits that make a scene real.

The MENA music scene is far richer than what usually reaches the charts. Charts are useful, of course. They tell us what is visible. But visibility isn't the same as depth.

“What we want to highlight is the depth, quality, and curatorial expertise that exists in the region,” says Kito. “The music scene across MENA is far richer than what usually reaches the charts. Charts don't always reflect the real sound of a place. They often show only the most visible layer.”

Through these playlists, STR wants to offer another way in: more thoughtful, more layered, and more human. A discovery space that connects Apple Music listeners with STR, The Sandy Times readers, regional artists, local scenes, and the people who build culture before anyone thinks to call it culture.

Tatyana describes curation in a rather poetic way. “Curation is translation, finding the right frame so a song reaches the person who actually needs to hear it,” she says. “And resisting the algorithmic pull toward sameness, pointing listeners somewhere they wouldn't have ended up on their own.”

That is the spirit behind this partnership. Not just more playlists. Better pathways. More context. More curiosity. Fewer dead-eyed “for you” recommendations that feel like they were assembled by a toaster with a minor in marketing.

The region has its own deep, complex, and evolving sound. It deserves to be discovered with care, respect, and attention. We are very happy to help make that happen — one monthly update, one local hero, and one suspiciously perfect track at a time.