Industry News

Apple Music Festival axed after 10 years so firm can focus on its own content

Apple has decided to axe its annual Apple Music festival at London’s Roundhouse, in favour of its own content and one-off events.

The Apple Music Festival, which launched in 2007 as iTunes festival and was rebranded in 2015, hosted an impressive line up of acts each September, offering free daily concerts for prize-winners. After undergoing its rebranding, the event scaled back to 10 shows during the month.

Some of the big names involved in the festival over its tenure included Adele, Oasis, Mumford & Sons, Paul Simon, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Arctic Monkeys, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, The Weeknd, One Direction and Beck.

Most recently, Elton John, The 1975, Chance The Rapper (pictured) and Alicia Keys were included in the 2016 line-up.

Apple has moved to cancel the yearly event in order to create its own content and host music, TV and films to stream and buy. The company launched the TV series Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps, as well as expecting to create music-themed content.

In terms of live music, Apple was recently a partner of gigs by pop-rock band Haim and grime artist Skepta in London, in addition to indie rock band Arcade Fire in Brooklyn. It also supports Lana Del Rey, Vince Staples and DJ Khaled at the SXSW festival in Texas earlier this year. Apple Music also sponsored Drake’s 32-date Summer Sixteen Tour in 2016.

Image: Julio Enriquez