As talk and anticipation heat up around Austin's annual cultural bonanza, South by Southwest (SXSW), Apple has fanned the flames even more. This year, for the first time, the Cupertino company is bringing its trademark iTunes Festival with it - the first time the show has crossed the pond from the United Kingdom.
It's a condensed festival, playing over five of SXSW's 10 days - rather than the 30 days the original incarnation typically runs for. With acts including Imagine Dragons, ZEDD, Willie Nelson, Pitbull, Keith Urban, and Coldplay, it's thought that Apple's bringing out the big guns in retaliation to streaming service (and two- time SXSW veteran) Spotify, which released its own five-day festival lineup just yesterday.
Spotify's lineup might not pull in the megabucks that Apple's acts typically command, but there's little doubt that the company's prescient choice of musicians has some serious industry cred - something that certainly won't run amiss at an event as judicious as SXSW. With a roster that includes indie favorites Phantogram, Warpaint, Real Estate, Glass Animals, Future Islands, Shakey Graves, and Twin Forks, Spotify looks like it's hoping to hold on to its tried-and-tested niche: fostering the fledgling (well, comparatively) acts. "In years past, Spotify has hosted a number of break-out artists during SXSW such as Kimbra, Haim, Kendrick Lamar, Tom Odell and St. Lucia and this year will be no different," wrote Spotify's Candice Katz on the company's news page.
Nevertheless, Apple looks ready to shake up the scene. "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 U.S."
If you have access to the iTunes store, you're in luck: every iTunes Festival gig will be made available for free on iOS platforms (including Apple TV, Macs and PCs) as live and on-demand streams. The broadcast will be filmed at the famed Moody Theater, and if previous years are anything to go by, will be viewed remotely by millions of fans.
As with the British events, the SXSW iteration of the iTunes Festival will be free to attend. For music, film, and interactive tech lovers, the circus can't come to town fast enough.
