Stuart Dredge 

Apple’s iTunes Festival promises diversity in its eighth year

Annual event to showcase new and established artists alike: ‘It’s about building a relationship with us’. By Stuart Dredge
  
  

Justin Timberlake timed his last album release alongside his iTunes Festival gig.
Justin Timberlake timed his last album release alongside his iTunes Festival gig. Photograph: Apple Photograph: Apple

Apple’s iTunes Festival has become a staple of the British music festivals season, with the livestreams of its annual month-long residency at London’s Roundhouse venue bringing it a global profile too.

That’s even more the case in 2014, with the September gigs set to be streamed to more than 100 countries, where fans will be able to watch the likes of Deadmau5, Kasabian, Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams and Kylie Minogue perform via various devices.

As ever, tickets to attend the gigs are being distributed via a mixture of an online sweepstake and competitions run by media partners, from newspapers and radio stations to Twitter and Shazam.

“This is our eighth year, and from the first year on, for us it was about diversity,” Oliver Schusser, senior director, iTunes International at Apple told The Guardian, in an interview ahead of this year’s event.

“It’s really a fully-curated month: we want to make sure we have some pop artists, some classical artists, jazz. Some well-established artists, and some up-and-coming artists that we really believe in. I’m really proud, because I think it’s as diverse as we can get.”

The festival has become increasingly influential within the music industry, with a growing number of labels timing new releases and marketing campaigns around artists’ appearances at the event.

In 2013, that included Lady Gaga giving a live debut to most of the songs from her ARTPOP album; Justin Timberlake releasing his The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2 album just after his headline set ended; and similarly-synchronised album releases from Arctic Monkeys, Avicii and Jack Johnson.

“It happened already two years ago: all of a sudden this became a key part of everyone’s plan. Lady Gaga opened last year on the first, and that was the kickoff for her new project, and the same for Katy Perry at the end,” says Schusser.

“It feels like this has become really a great part of everyone’s promo activity, from a label and manager and artist perspective.”

You don’t get to be a senior director at Apple without being able to dead-bat questions about future announcements. Schusser deflects a question about the remaining two unannounced dates for this year’s festival, as well as the prospect of any Beyoncé-style surprise album releases alongside its gigs.

Apple has been quietly increasing the ways it works with musicians and labels around the releases of new albums, though: for example, making full-album streams available through iTunes the week before release.

The latest Ed Sheeran album was promoted through the use of “instant grat” tracks: seven of its songs could be downloaded early, over the days leading up to its official release, by fans who had pre-ordered it through iTunes.

Schusser points out that Sheeran is also an example of a musician who first played the iTunes Festival in a support slot, before graduating to headline status – and then returning this year.

“It’s about building a relationship with us. Ed Sheeran in particular, I’m proud of the campaign we ran up to his new album this year, but we’ve worked together for many years,” he says.

The status of the album is currently a talking point within the music industry, most recently fuelled by comments from BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra’s head of music George Ergatoudis, who suggested that “albums are edging closer to extinction... most people are not listening to albums. They are flicking through playlists.”

Albums out, playlists in? It seems like a threat to iTunes, given the wider predictions of a move from downloads to streaming music, and the fact that Apple’s own streaming services – iTunes Radio and the recently-acquired Beats Music – are only available in a handful of countries.

That said, Apple itself has often been accused of having helped get the album-destruction bandwagon rolling in the first place, by letting people buy individual album tracks digitally – as opposed to filesharing service Napster, which actually started that bandwagon, just without the “buy” part.

Interestingly, while Apple waits to roll out its streaming services to battle Spotify, Deezer and other rivals, its iTunes strategy has seen it become almost one of the last bastions of the full-album format, sometimes successfully as with Beyoncé who sold 829,000 copies of her last album in its first three days, and sometimes less so as with the iTunes LP format, which hasn’t really taken off.

“We were incredibly proud of the Beyoncé promotion, but it all starts with a great product. It’s a very strong album, with very strong videos: a really attractive package that was actually priced relatively highly,” says Schusser, in response to a question about whether it proved there’s life in the album yet.

“I actually agree: it has made people think again about the future of the album. Creatively, we really believe in albums, but that doesn’t say we don’t believe in giving customers the choice to buy songs as they want. But as a creative concept, I think albums have actually been quite strong over the past year.”

Apple also sees the global scale of iTunes as a key weapon for labels trying to make a splash with big albums. “We’re in 119 markets now: we spent a lot of energy in the last three to four years to expand, going from what used to be 23 markets to 119,” says Schusser.

“That allows you to release your album at the same time in 119 markets, and that’s a huge opportunity that has never existed before, even if it’s not 100% the norm yet: the album release dates don’t exactly line up around the world.”

That may be changing, with the music industry currently mulling – and, characteristically, arguing about – a globally-unified weekly release day, that will potentially see new albums come out on Fridays, rather than Mondays (the UK) or Tuesdays (the US and Canada).

What about that transition from sales to streams, though? A month-long music festival in September could be a great launchpad for Apple to launch iTunes Radio and Beats Music in the UK, at least, as well as other countries around the world.

Will it? Schusser is politely unforthcoming. “Our focus is to make the festival better every year, and run a great event,” he says, in response to a question about whether the festival will host any marketing for Apple’s streaming services.

A direct question on Beats Music and iTunes Radio launching in the UK is similarly dealt with: “There is nothing to talk about today. When we do have something to announce, we’ll be sure to give you a call.”

Given the rumours of a 9th September unveiling of Apple’s next iPhone models, it’s possible that the company could use such an event to give more detail on its streaming music plans, then promote them at the concerts.

For now, Apple’s emphasis is on streaming video of those gigs to iPhones, iPads, televisions and computers around the world: an impressive technical feat in itself, even at a time when other companies – Yahoo and Vevo for example – are following suit with their own livestreamed concerts.

“We look at what people are doing out of interest, but it’s not like we’re comparing ourselves to any of the other activities. We are happy with the quality of the event, both for the people in the room as well as for the people at home,” says Schusser.

“We do invest a lot in the technology: spending a lot of time, energy and R&D in making sure we have the right cameras, the best angles, the synchronisation between the cameras and the stage. It’s really a one-year project every time.”

For up-and-coming British artists taking support slots on this year’s bill – including Jungle, Luke Sital-Singh, Foxes, Jess Glynne, MNEK and Wolf Alice – it’s an early chance to reach a global audience.

“The support we can give the music industry includes exporting some of the talent we have seen here. We do it internally when we spot someone we really like,” says Schusser.

“We can really promote up-and-coming British bands and artists in the US and everywhere around the world. It’s a fantastic opportunity.”

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