SXSW is a huge festival that is held in Austin, Texas, which will be coming up shortly. The festival is used to showcase a variety of arts, including independent films, musicians, technological innovators, and the long conference is host to many different types of speakers.
This year, the festival will feature a new type of event that has never been seen in the United States before. SXSW will be bringing Apple’s iTunes festival to Austin.
The event that has taken place in London up until this year. The official lineup of the iTunes festival was released today, and features several big names in the music business.
Speaking on the change of location, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said “The iTunes Festival in London has become an incredible way for Apple to share its love of music with our customers. We’re excited about the incredible lineup of artists performing and SXSW is the perfect place to debut the first iTunes Festival in the US.”
The iTunes festival will be a large, music-filled event that airs during SXSW, and feature big artists such as Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull, and a Texas native, Willie Nelson. The ticketing has not been revealed yet, but past events have been free of charge for those who win tickets via a lottery. The performances will take place at Austin’s ACL Live At The Moody Theater.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OTrIIe4cBg
The initial lineup has been set up, although more artists will still be added later on. Along with the Apples iTunes festival, SXSW will be host to many other musicians, films, and other types of events.
Check out the initial line up of the festival below.
March 11 – Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, London Grammar
March 14 – Pitbull, ZEDD, G.R.L
March 15 – Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, Mickey Guyton
Who else looked at the Apple #SXSW sked and Googled "Mickey Guyton"? And they say corporate sponsorship killed music discovery.
— Andy Langer (@Andylanger) February 19, 2014
As with the iTunes festivals of the past, Apple will stream all five nights live to Macs, iOS devices, and the new Apple TV. Apple says tens of millions of users have watched the performances from the festival online. More than 400 artists have performed at past iTunes festivals, in front of more than 430,000 fans.
SXSW has been the location where several indie musicians have gained attention, and a number of films have also debuted there before heading to even bigger film festivals. Luckily, for those that are not able to make it to Austin for the big festival, fans will be able to stream the shows live via the internet.
Image via Youtube