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Apple Ends Its Annual Music Festival in London

According to Music Business Worldwide, Apple may have got rid of the festival run to focus on more catered and specialised shows. Digital Spy suggest that sponsored performances of Lana Del Rey and DJ Khaled at SXSW are indicative of this move.
 
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jdillings said:
Next will be the shuttering of Beats 1 which few people listen to
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You mean "Beats with only Rap and Hip Hop"?

Actually, I loved Beats 1 while I had AM, but only those times it wasn't Rap and/or Hip Hop. Ie like less than 5% of the time...
 
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Moderator Note:

There is no evidence to suggest there are political reasons behind the decision to cancel the Apple Music Festival.

Threads and posts on controversial political, religious, and social issues are to be limited to the Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum, and made only by those eligible for that forum. Some news threads are placed in that forum, as explained in the Rules for the Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum but this is not one of them.

Please stay on-topic.
 
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Diving Capers said:
I'm betting that Apple saw it as a European event. If they want to make it easily accessible to all Europeans it makes sense to no longer have it in London.

Spain, France, Germany, etc would make for more suitable countries now.

If Apple were to move it to a new country, I would put my money on Spain, popular with travelers and easy to travel to when in Europe.

I really hope they do launch it again.

Good music and Spanish food.... who could resist?
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London has always been the envy of Europe and will continue to be so for a long time to come. but is never going to be overthrown with anything musical as its part of what had made London great for a very long time.
 
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Not only does Apple not get any gratitude and appreciation for hosting ten years' worth of free concerts, but they are being blasted for ending a free initiative which costs its audience nothing.

Man, the sense of entitlement sure is strong around here.
 
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Can someone tell me again what’s been so great about the Beats acquisition? Jimmy Iovine? That’s laughable. No doubt they ended this so they can throw money at stupid shows like Planet of the Apps in the hopes that it will increase Apple Music subscriptions. Can Eddy Cue just retire already?!?
 
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g3nw1 said:
London has always been the envy of Europe and will continue to be so for a long time to come. but is never going to be overthrown with anything musical as its part of what had made London great for a very long time.
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I assume it was a very expensive event that didn't contribute much in terms of marketing. Most people outside the UK never heard about this festival so better to invest in something digital.

But why after the name change? The end of the iTunes Festival sounds not so bad as the end of the Apple Music Festival. Somebody didn't think this through. Must be a recent decision.
 
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g3nw1 said:
London has always been the envy of Europe and will continue to be so for a long time to come. but is never going to be overthrown with anything musical as its part of what had made London great for a very long time.
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I love London! Spend 4 months there last year from October to January, loved the food love the people and thoroughly enjoyed myself! Went to five musicals and had the chance to see the incredible Kylie Minogue Christmas show at Royal Albert Hall.

I live five minutes from New York, which I love, but London forever has a special place in my heart!
 
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It would have been great if Apple would have moved the venue around to different countries so Music fans from many countries could have enjoyed the live experience.
 
That's too bad, there were some pretty good performances from those shows (that I saw online anyway).

Hopefully they replace it with something, or maybe they're getting away from a focus on iTunes and music with their wannabe Netflix custom content. Apple Music soon to be Apple Streaming or something?
 
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I bet they are planning to expand it and relaunch it to compete with the big music festivals in the world... it's a whole industry that Apple can definitely capitalize on given its interest in the entertainment industry.
 
Diving Capers said:
I'm betting that Apple saw it as a European event. If they want to make it easily accessible to all Europeans it makes sense to no longer have it in London.

Spain, France, Germany, etc would make for more suitable countries now.

If Apple were to move it to a new country, I would put my money on Spain, popular with travelers and easy to travel to when in Europe.

I really hope they do launch it again.

Good music and Spanish food.... who could resist?
Click to expand...


" Spain, France, Germany, etc would make for more suitable countries now. "​

How exactly ? UK still has more wealthy citizens who spend more than these countries. And all of these countries experienced terrorist attacks and violence, so if that's what Apple is scared then no, they wouldn't move their festival to those countries.

I hope they launch again too.

" If they want to make it easily accessible to all Europeans it makes sense to no longer have it in London.
I would put my money on Spain, popular with travelers and easy to travel to when in Europe. "
​
There is technically no difference for a European citizen to fly to Paris (for example) or to London. Brexit hard or soft, Europeans will be allowed to enter UK as easily as before, the debating matter here is not a touristic visit but rather than work/study/live and use public funds. It makes sense to have festival in London, that's why Apple chose London in the first place.
 
OllyW said:
Moderator Note:

There is no evidence to suggest there are political reasons behind the decision to cancel the Apple Music Festival.

Threads and posts on controversial political, religious, and social issues are to be limited to the Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum, and made only by those eligible for that forum. Some news threads are placed in that forum, as explained in the Rules for the Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum but this is not one of them.

Please stay on-topic.
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What exactly is "on-topic" about them canceling the festival? They gave no reason and none was reported in the MR article. The reason for cancellation is now open to speculation, could be financial, political, technical, or other.

Surely you didn't expected the readers to not speculate, being that this website is based in "rumors" about Apple's decisions. Why clamp the conversation?
 
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dontworry said:
What exactly is "on-topic" about them canceling the festival? They gave no reason and none was reported in the MR article. The reason for cancellation is now open to speculation, could be financial, political, technical, or other.

Surely you didn't expected the readers to not speculate, being that this website is based in "rumors" about Apple's decisions. Why clamp the conversation?
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We allow political discussion in the PRSI forum but not outside it, especially when applied to news discussion threads. If the MR editors had thought a political decision was behind the decision the thread would have been posted in the PRSI forum as explained in the Forum Rules. The thread had already derailed into disagreements about Brexit when the mod note was posted, which required a considerable clean up.

If you think there is a political reason behind the decision to cancel the festival then please feel free to start a thread in the correct forum.
 
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Sad, I enjoyed watching the stream these past couple years and was looking forward to it this year. I always thought it was a great way for them to celebrate/promote music. Maybe the will relaunch at Apple Park.
 
always loved the idea of this and would always end up disappointed. Either the streams didn't work or the show would be on at some weird hr (5 hr time difference) and most if the acts I wanted to see didn't make their concerts available ondemand. Im sure if you were in London it was an amazing experience for me it sucked. Especially when all they had to do was make the shows available on demand for a limited time
 
It would make sense to do a festival in Europe, but I think they want content for Apple Music, so it will be exclusive and streamed to subscribers. If they can get deals with touring groups to stream without the need of renting out a venue, the better. Not tough to have a mobile broadcast service, streaming out to a CDN.
Have 10 and you have round the clock live broadcasting.
 
Maybe Roku or Amazon should host a music festival considering it has a wider audience on their devices vs the fledgling Apple TV products. I think even Google Music festival might draw a larger audience globally.

But in reality, MOST likely that since Apple is releasing an Apple TV update this September it might not make sense to host a music festival in the same month. Either the festival is delayed, or will skip this year, and next year one will be offered with 4K coverage.
 
Abazigal said:
Not only does Apple not get any gratitude and appreciation for hosting ten years' worth of free concerts, but they are being blasted for ending a free initiative which costs its audience nothing.

Man, the sense of entitlement sure is strong around here.
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I've written to Tim personally to express my gratitude to him and the whole team for enriching our tiny little island with this wonderful free* decade long musical extravaganza that Apple in no way benefitted from be it by the promotion of its products and services or otherwise.


*only available to Apple Music subscribers last year!
 
gijoeinla said:
I thought Tim Cook once said "You need to get a life and stop writing down everything he says"

God however did say everyone on earth including you has the right to change their mind...

Thank god!
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As an editor at a foreign Apple news website, it is my job to write down most of the things he says ;)
 
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