Apple Music’s new concert series will livestream select performances, starting with Harry Styles – TechCrunch
Apple is launching a new concert live-streaming series called “Apple Music Live” that will showcase performances from “the biggest stars in music,” the company announced today. The series will kick off on May 20th with a live stream of Harry Styles’ “Once Night Only in New York” performance. The concert will be available to stream exclusively to Apple Music subscribers in 167 countries at no extra cost.
“No matter how much time and effort an artist may spend crafting music in the studio, it’s on the stage where they really get to show their work,” the company notes. “Apple Music Live is a new recurring series designed to do just that: give the biggest stars in music the biggest possible platform to flaunt how they connect with audiences and how their songs translate to live performance.”
The concert will be available to live stream on Apple Music this Friday at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT. There will also be encores on May 22nd at 12 PM ET/9 AM ET and May 26th at 4 PM BST, which indicates that the performance won’t be available to watch on-demand. When reached for clarification, Apple told TechCrunch that it currently doesn’t have anything to share about on-demand availability for Apple Music Live.
The concert is taking place at UBS Arena in Long Island, New York. The performance will celebrate Styles’ new album “Harry’s House,” which will be available on the same day. Styles will also be performing his new album for the first time ever during the concert.
It’s unknown how often Apple plans to feature artists in the new concert series. The company also hasn’t revealed which other artists will be showcased in the future.
Apple’s new live concert series could be a way for it to garner more subscribers to its music streaming service by featuring popular artists. Securing a big name like Harry Styles will also certainly give Apple some buzz around the new concert series. As for the artists that are featured in the series, it could be a way for them to further promote new albums and give fans an idea of what their performances are like.
Apple joins several other digital giants that have hosted live concert performances. For example, YouTube has been live streaming Coachella performances for years and Hulu will stream Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo music festivals this year and in 2023. It’s worth noting that Apple itself has had experience with live music events, including the discontinued iTunes Festival and Apple Music Festival.
