iTunes Festival 2015 cut from a month to ten days
Apple has dramatically cut the number of artists appearing at this year's iTunes Festival, now rebranded the Apple Music Festival. The long-running series normally offers a month of live performances which can be streamed for free on Apple devices, but this year's show has been pared back to only ten nights.
Among the headliners appearing at the Apple Music Festival 2015 will be One Direction, Pharrell Williams and Florence + The Machine. The gigs will be streamed live to iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple TV and via iTunes, and the shows will also be covered on Apple Music's new streaming radio station, Beats 1.
The past few iTunes Festivals have run for the entire month of September, and Apple gives no explanation as to why it's drastically shortened the show this year. The timing seems particularly odd given that Apple has a new music streaming service to promote.
Oddly, Apple's PR department seems to think slashing the number of dates is doing fans a favour. "We wanted to do something really special for music fans this year,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement.
As usual, fans can apply for free tickets for the gigs at London's Roundhouse via the Apple Music Festival website . The company has so far only announced a handful of artists, which makes us suspect some bigger names will be revealed at a later date. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Coldplay and Adele are among the artists who've previously appeared at the iTunes Festival.
