Apple bringing iTunes Festival to America at SXSW 2014

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited February 2014
Music fans in the U.S. will finally get a chance to attend Apple's iTunes Festival as the company announced on Wednesday that the free concert event will come to 2014 edition of the annual SXSW conference in Austin, Texas.

iTunes Festival


Running from March 11 to 15, the festival will feature performances from Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull, Keith Urban, and ZEDD, among others yet to be announced. As with past iTunes Festivals, Apple will stream all five nights live to Macs, iOS devices, and the Apple TV.

"The iTunes Festival in London has become an incredible way for Apple to share its love of music with our customers," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "We're excited about the incredible lineup of artists performing and SXSW is the perfect place to debut the first iTunes Festival in the US."

The shows will take place at ACL Live at the Moody Theater, home of Austin City Limits. The official iTunes Festival application for iOS will offer users the ability to view the shows in high-definition on both Apple TV and any compatible iOS device, and users can also stream to their Mac on-demand from iTunes.

To date, the iTunes Festival has been limited to London, and over 400 artists have performed in front of more than 430,000 fans. Apple says tens of millions of users have watched the performances from the festival online.

Apple has yet to reveal ticketing information for this year's festival, though past events have been free of charge for those who win tickets via a lottery.

Performances from previous years are available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    That must be the music event Kanye West was complaining about. Like he doesn't complain about everything.
    http://www.cultofmac.com/266765/kanye-west-tells-tim-cook-quit-trying-act-like-youre-dumb-video/
  • Reply 2 of 14
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member

    Kayne West is one of the biggest F&#^# idiots out there. His music sucks too. Maybe he's just butthurt because other artists do this for the passion and he does it for the money. Sorry for the rant...didn't mean to offend anyone here at all. 

     

    On a side note....I would really like to attend this. 

  • Reply 3 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post

     

    Maybe he's just butthurt because other artists do this for the passion and he does it for the money. 


     

    Get out of it, musicians need to earn money as much as anyone else.  Even those with passion.

     

    Apple always claim to love music, so why don't they pay for it when it comes to iTunes Festival?

     

    I think the iTunes Festival is great for music lovers, but can totally see where Kanye is coming from.

  • Reply 4 of 14
    crowley wrote: »
    Get out of it, musicians need to earn money as much as anyone else.  Even those with passion.

    Apple always claim to love music, so why don't they pay for it when it comes to iTunes Festival?

    I think the iTunes Festival is great for music lovers, but can totally see where Kanye is coming from.

    Tim cook wants the artist to perform for free, he's paying for the venue, he has shareholders looking for no more decreases on margin, and he's not charging anyone ticket prices. Doesn't sound like too bad of a deal to me.

    Since you say apple should pay for a free event, does that mean you should 'get out of it'?
  • Reply 5 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by daveinpublic View Post





    Tim cook wants the artist to perform for free, he's paying for the venue, he has shareholders looking for no more decreases on margin, and he's not charging anyone ticket prices. Doesn't sound like too bad of a deal to me.

    A bad deal for who?  What does the artist get out of it?  I don't really think Kanye, or most of the other artists that play the Festival, needs exposure.

     

    Why does the venue get to charge and not the performers?  Why does Apple get the benefit of content exclusive to their devices/software, but the artists have to provide their services for free?

     

    If the artists want to do that, that's fine.  But Kanye is within his rights to say it doesn't work for him, and claiming he's "butthurt" over it is silly.

     

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by daveinpublic View Post



    Since you say apple should pay for a free event, does that mean you should 'get out of it'?


     


    Don't understand what point you're trying to make, that I shouldn't partake of the iTunes Festival?  What sense would that make?

  • Reply 6 of 14
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Crowley View Post

     

     

    Get out of it, musicians need to earn money as much as anyone else.  Even those with passion.

     

    Apple always claim to love music, so why don't they pay for it when it comes to iTunes Festival?

     

    I think the iTunes Festival is great for music lovers, but can totally see where Kanye is coming from.


     

    The point is that they already have millions of dollars, and rake in thousands everyday from various sources such as iTunes. How many more millions do you need. Why do you need to get paid for every little thing you do just because you have a famous name attached to you. This is what bothers me about some celebrities. In some ways Apple has already paid them millions with things like the iTunes music store. Why not give back to the people who support you. You don't always have to get paid for what you do. 

  • Reply 7 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    That post could be inverted to be about Apple with very few changes.

     

    It's viewing things down a very one way street.  Apple has profited very handsomely from their music businesses - if there was no iPod then Apple would be a very different company today.  Why should artists have to repay Apple rather than the other way round?  Why do Apple, a famous company, have this sense of entitlement that famous musicians aren't allowed to have?  Or, more reasonably, why can't Apple pay an artist's regular performance rate for giving a regular performance, and then benefit in their own manner from the exclusivity of that performance?

     

    I think it's a reasonable complaint and a good reason to not perform at the iTunes Festival.  Other artists may feel differently, but Kanye's opinion shouldn't be shot down as "butthurt".

  • Reply 8 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    To illustrate my first point...

     

    Quote:

    Edited from an original post by macxpress View Post

     

    The point is that they already have billions of dollars, and rake in millions everyday from various sources such as iTunes. How many more billions do you need. Why do you need to get paid for every little thing you do just because you have a famous name attached to you. This is what bothers me about some companies. In some ways artists have already paid them millions with things like the rights to sell their music. Why not give back to the people who support you. You don't always have to make a profit in everything you do. 


  • Reply 9 of 14
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Crowley View Post

     

     

    Get out of it, musicians need to earn money as much as anyone else.  Even those with passion.

     

    Apple always claim to love music, so why don't they pay for it when it comes to iTunes Festival?

     

    I think the iTunes Festival is great for music lovers, but can totally see where Kanye is coming from.


    No one is forced to play this festival. If they feel they need to be paid then say no and play a festival that pays.

  • Reply 10 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    I never claimed otherwise.  That wasn't the point at all.

  • Reply 11 of 14
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post

     

    No one is forced to play this festival. If they feel they need to be paid then say no and play a festival that pays.


     

    This was going to be my suggestion. Instead of bitching and complaining about it like he does with everything else, just say no and move on. Nobody will care about the lack of him being there anyways. 
  • Reply 12 of 14
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post

     

    This was going to be my suggestion. Instead of bitching and complaining about it like he does with everything else, just say no and move on. Nobody will care about the lack of him being there anyways. 


     

    Exactly, Kanye wants thousands of dollars to sing a few songs at a concert that is free for the end user.  Ontop of it, he'll get a bunch of free publicity plus goodwill.  Would it be nice if Apple paid him for that?  Sure, it would be nice of them.  And they probably do pay people they really want singing in their concert.  But, if they don't decide to pay you, why are you so torn up that you have to whine to a crowd of your fans?  He has to tell on Tim Cook so he won't get away with denigrating Kanye's requests to only sing for cash.  If you don't want to do a free concert for fans, that's your choice.  Go with it.  Don't complain that someone isn't going to pay your way, and give you thousands for it.

  • Reply 13 of 14
    my friend Arlen Roth a recording artist for several decades with albums on Rounder records and a few other labels told me that the only time he has seen actual royalty checks of any note was through i tunes.

    Apple is a godsend to a lot of artists I am sure Arlen would love to play this festival. I am sure Apple is covering travel expenses for these groups at least.

    how bout some votes to get arlen in the show! heres his spot on conan o'brian

  • Reply 14 of 14
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Would love to attend SXSW, iTunes Festival or not.  Great excuse to visit Austin (as if I needed any excuse).


    But man are those tickets expensive!  At this point, the "walkup rates" range from $1295 to $1695.


    Sure, that's for 9 days, but then there's the air fare and hotel too ($200-$300 / night, booked solid since December.)
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