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Pharrell & One Direction headlining Apple Music Festival September 19-28 in London

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Apple today announced that it will be holding its annual music festival across 10 days during the month of September in London. Previously known as the iTunes Festival, this year’s show is known as the “Apple Music Festival” in reference the recently launched Apple Music service. It is also notably shorter than the typical 30 days of concerts. Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Florence + The Machine and Disclosure will be the headlining acts at this year’s festival, which takes place from September 19th to September 28th.

Apple’s Eddy Cue in addition to the main artists have commented on the announcement:


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Plácido Domingo to close iTunes Festival on September 30, show kicking off today with deadmau5

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Placido Domingo has been announced as the final closing act for Apple’s iTunes Festival London. Apple has also added a few more acts than what had been previously announced, to round out the lineup. This includes The Mirror Trap, Friend Within and the London Electronic Orchestra.

The month-long festival starts today at 9 PM UK time (1 PM PST), with ‘Deadmau5’ headlining Monday’s show. A full schedule can be found online at http://itunesfestival.com.


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Apple Store promoting upcoming iTunes Festival w/ pins and wristbands, music-related events

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After bringing the iTunes Festival to the US earlier this year at Austin SXSW, Apple’s annual music event in London kicking off next week has been the focus of much of the company’s attention recently. Earlier this week, Apple’s newly acquired Beats Music began promoting the iTunes Festival with a contest within the app to attend the festival.

Apple will also use its retail stores to further promote the event with iTunes Festival Pins to be worn by retail employees to “spark conversation about the event,” according to an internal document obtained by 9to5Mac. Retail employees will also receive iTunes Festival wristbands and redemption codes for music. Select Apple Stores will also host “music-related events” with local artists, according to the document.
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Apple promoting iTunes Festival contest within Beats Music in push for new users

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In addition to updating the iTunes Festival lineup with new acts including Ed Sheeran and deadmau5 and reviving the Apple TV channel for viewing the concert on-demand and live, Apple’s recently acquired Beats Music is now promoting the iTunes Festival with a contest to attend the music festival in London. While tickets to Apple’s annual music event are free for attendees (and very limited), the contest by Beats Music to attend the iTunes Festival covers airfare both to and from London.

The promotion of the iTunes Festival in London by Beats Music, which requires users to download and sign up for the Beats Music service, is the latest in series of moves by Apple to promote Beats since Beats Electronics and Beats Music officially joined Apple earlier this month.


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iTunes Festival 2014 schedule updated with new acts including Mary J. Blige and deadmau5

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Apple has once again updated the lineup for its upcoming iTunes Festival in London, adding several new musical artists to the schedule, including Mary J. Blige, deadmau5, Tony Bennett, and Ed Sheeran. The addition of 19 more acts brings the current announced total to 40, with another 20+ still to be announced.

The complete list of artists added tonight is below:


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Apple adds 21 artists to iTunes Festival London lineup, including Lenny Kravitz & Ryan Adams

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Apple today announced several new bands and solo artists that will be appearing at the 2014 iTunes Festival in London next month along with Pharrell Williams, Maroon 5 and more for a total of 60 acts. Among the new additions to the lineup are Lenny Kravitz, Ryan Adams, and The Script.

The annual festival will be held in London’s Roundhouse over the course of September, as well as streamed online for viewers around the world. Apple is partnering with radio stations and other outlets in the UK to give away tickets to fans. The complete list of new additions the line up is below:


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iTunes Festival app updated for London 2014, brings new design

 

This morning, Apple announced a new iTunes Festival for the United Kingdom, featuring over sixty bands, for September. The iTunes Festival app has now been updated to relay this information and exhibits the design style and iconography for the 2014 show. Because this is a UK show, the app is only available in the UK iTunes Store.

Currently, the app doesn’t feature much content — simply linking out to the iTunes Store app to enter the raffle for tickets. When the 2014 iTunes Festival starts, the app will stream the gigs alongside other related content. The festival will also be shown on Apple TV.

The app was last updated earlier this year for the corresponding 2014 show in the US.

Apple announces iTunes Festival London 2014 featuring Maroon 5, Pharrell Williams, and more

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Apple has announced its eighth annual iTunes Festival event at the Roundhouse in London through a press release on its website. The 30-day event will run through the month of September and feature over 60 bands, including Maroon 5, Pharrell Williams, Beck, and many more.

As usual, the entire event will be available for live streaming and on-demand viewing online, through the iTunes Festival iOS app, or an on a dedicated Apple TV channel. Fans in the UK and abroad will also have a chance to win free tickets through competitions held by local media outlets and through the iTunes Store.

The full press release is below:


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Kanye West complains Apple trades iTunes placement for live appearances instead of paying artists (Video)

Kanye West hasn’t been shy when it comes to expressing his opinions about Apple. Earlier this week he sat down for an interview with AdWeek and noted he thought Samsung’s deal last year with Jay-Z might have influenced Apple to invest in pop culture through its purchase of Beats. Above, Kanye expands on that thought in an interview with Bloomberg during the Cannes Creativity Festival. In the interview, while explaining that he thinks Apple didn’t see the value in investing in pop culture before the Samsung deal with Jay-Z, Kanye drives the point home by noting Apple offered artists “extra space on the iTunes page” instead of paying them to perform at the iTunes Festival.

We already knew that Apple wasn’t paying artists to perform at its iTunes Festival, which arrived in the U.S. for the first time this year during the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Kanye previously called out Tim Cook during one of his usual onstage rants earlier this year, but we didn’t know Apple was offering artists prime real estate on the iTunes store in exchange for their performances.

Kanye’s full quote is below:

“It showed, now that Steve has passed… It showed a number one company the importance of connecting with culture. And I know you might of heard about this thing where I was on stage calling Tim Cook out and saying why do you have these guys performing at SXSW and you don’t want to pay them. You just want to give us extra space on the iTunes page and stuff. Meanwhile, Samsung realized, the whole point of what we’re saying, is that no you have to go and pay these guys. And that culture and creativity is worth something. The best thing about the fall of Blackberry and the rise at Apple is the win for creativity…

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iTunes Festival kicks off at Austin SXSW with Coldplay and more, Apple execs in the crowd

Apple kicked off its iTunes Festival event at SXSW tonight with Apple execs Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue in the crowd. Tonight’s show will feature performances by Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, and London Grammar. The entire event is being live-streamed on a dedicated Vevo page and Apple TV channel.

The five-night event will also have performances by Kendrick Lamar, Pitbull, Keith Urban, and more. You can view the full lineup and more in the free iTunes Festival app, which launched last week.

Schiller and Cue both tweeted photos from the Imagine Dragons concert:

[tweet https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/443568910860701697 align=’center’]

[tweet https://twitter.com/cue/status/443569400159825920 align=’center’]

iTunes Festival channel shows up on Apple TV ahead of SXSW concerts

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Ahead of this upcoming week’s iTunes Festival concert series at SXSW, Apple has added an iTunes Festival channel to the Apple TV so that users can live stream the concert’s content. Late last week, Apple released an updated version of the iTunes Festival application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The Apple TV application is similar in style to the iOS app, and it includes a colorful logo…


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iTunes Festival for iOS updated with refreshed design, SXSW streaming support

As MacStories notes, an updated version of Apple’s iTunes Festival app has appeared in the App Store with an iOS 7 redesign and streaming support for next week’s iTunes Festival at SXSW (although the app does not appear ready for download just yet).

Earlier this week, John Gruber offered that Apple’s iTunes Festival app could require iOS 7.1 and suggested a correlation between the absence of both software releases. Compatibility notes, though, list iOS 7.0 is supported and some users are reporting success with downloading the app with iOS 7.0.6.

At any rate, iOS 7.1 is still expected to debut sometime this month.

SXSW Festival using iBeacons for interactive sessions, speedy badge pickup through iOS app

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On top of the many uses for iBeacons we’ve seen in retail environments, event organizers are another group that have started taking advantage of Apple’s new Bluetooth tech recently. The MLB is deploying them in stadiums to send notifications to baseball fans, CES hosted an iBeacon scavenger hunt this year, and today we’ve found out the upcoming SXSW festival where Apple is hosting its latest iTunes Festival will also be using the technology.

Eventbase, the company that has been building the official SXSW festival app for a few years now reached out to let us know it will be deploying some iBeacons around the event this year to improve the experience. Specifically, it will be using the technology to “help attendees in Austin pick up their badge faster and get more involved in the sessions they attend.” One feature in the app will allow for real-time audience interaction during sessions:
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Expected iOS 7.1 likely arriving ahead of iTunes Festival at SXSW next week

Update: Didn’t happen. That “little birdie” is “for the birds”.

In a brief note on Daring Fireball, John Gruber makes a notable connection between Apple’s planned iTunes Festival at SXSW next week and the pending release of iOS 7.1:

Apple’s first iTunes Festival in the U.S. starts a week from today at SXSW in Austin. Apple is going to stream the performances to iOS devices using an app, but I’ve heard from a little birdie that the app requires iOS 7.1 (which explains why the app isn’t out yet). That means iOS 7.1 should ship any day now.

The fifth and most recent developer preview of iOS 7.1 was released four weeks ago from today, and we reported a few days later that the public release was slated for March.
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Apple adds Kendrick Lamar to iTunes Festival lineup at SXSW

As noted by The Loop, Apple has announced that Kendrick Lamar will be returning to the iTunes Festival again this year at its March event in Austin, Texas, during SXSW later this year.

Earlier this month, Apple shared that it was bringing its iTunes Festival to the United States for the first time this year. Apple has already announced other artists added to the lineup including Soundgarden.

Check below for more of the already announced lineup:
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Apple bringing iTunes Festival to the US for the first time at SXSW, for five nights in March

Image via The Loop

Apple has announced that it is bringing the iTunes Festival to the United States for the first time, after being a UK-only event since it began in 2007. The festival will be held at SXSW from March 11th to March 15th, at the Moody Theater.

The show will feature chart-topping acts from Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull and ZEDD with more announcements to follow. Just like the UK event, anyone can stream the event for free from their iOS devices, Macs as well as Apple TV.

In the press release, Cue said that the event is a way of sharing Apple’s love of music with customers.


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Apple’s 12 Days of Gifts app offers free download of Justin Timberlake’s iTunes Festival performances

Apple has officially kicked off its “12 Gifts of Christmas” promotion by offering a free download of four live songs (two of which have videos) from Justin Timberlake’s performance at the iTunes Festival in September.

Previously available as the 12 days of Christmas app in a few countries internationally, this year Apple has released a new “12 Days of Gifts” app that is available in the U.S. for the first time. Starting today through January 6, users will be able to download the app to access one free gift a day. The gifts are usually content from across the iTunes, iBooks, and App Stores, with today’s gift coming as a free download directly on your device through iTunes.

Download the free 12 Days of Gifts app for iPhone or iPad now to access your free gift.

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iTunes Festival apps updated w/ live EPs from festival performers

Apple has updated its iTunes Festival app for iOS tonight, the app where users can access live streamed content from Apple’s month long musical festival held during September. While Apple has now removed the video content that was only available for a limited time, it has added a number of live EPs from festival performers. It’s also added the content to the iTunes Festival app on Apple TV and started promoting the EPs in iTunes on the Mac.

All of the albums were recorded live during the iTunes Festival last month at The Roadhouse art center in London.

The live EPs are available for select artists including Sigur Ros, Janelle Monae, The Lumineers, Queens of the Stone AgeJohn Legend, Phox, and others, and run $10 and below depending on the number of songs on each album.

During Apple’s iPhone event in September, Tim Cook noted that the iTunes Festival event, now in its seventh year, reached around 100+ countries through its live streams with more than 20 million people applying for tickets to attend the live show.

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Apple updates iTunes Festival app w/ video streaming ahead of event kickoff this weekend

Ahead of this Sunday’s kickoff of Apple’s iTunes Festival concerts, Apple has updated its iTunes Festival iOS app with the ability to conduct video streaming. It is plausible that this video streaming feature will allow customers who are not attending the concerts to watch the events live. The Festival is also available to watch via Apple TV and iTunes. Yesterday, Apple started offering free songs from the Festival via its Apple Store iOS app. 


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Apple announces September iTunes Festival in London starring Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars, others

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Apple has announced that it will hold its annual iTunes Festival in London during the month of September. The event will occur nightly during that month at the Roadhouse in London. Apple says that popular artists Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jack Johnson and Jessie J will headline the event. The event will be streamed nightly to iOS devices, iTunes on computers, and the Apple TV:


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