Every year Apple holds the iTunes Festival, a month of free concerts with some of the biggest names in music. The shows take place at the Roundhouse in London, and this year’s lineup includes artists like Justin Timberlake, Jessie J, Phoenix, Queens of the Stone Age, Jack Johnson, and Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Today the official iTunes Festival 2013 app got updated with Passbook support, allowing attendees to download tickets straight to their iPhones. So how do you get your hands on a ticket to see your favorite artist for free? As you can imagine, your chances of going to the iTunes Festival are slim. And that’s because Apple doesn’t put the show on for normal music fans in the first place.
First off, you pretty much have to be in the U.K. to even have a chance at scoring tickets. The iTunes Festival app isn’t even available to non-U.K. customers in the App Store. So that cancels out the majority of planet earth.
But even if you’re in the London area, good luck getting tickets through Apple’s raffle system in the iTunes Store. British music blog SoulSide Funk explains:
The iTunes Festival is NOT about the fans. Do not believe any PR or such you read, this is no thank you for collectively spending millions of pounds with them each month, this is not the people’s music festival because tickets are free; No! This is not about us, the music fans. The iTunes Festival is about Apple flexing their muscles. A gentle reminder to the music industry who is top dog right now and warning to any naysayers to fall in line.
The iTunes Festival is not about music, it is about business; pure and simple. I’m not complaining because a free gig is a free gig and the line-ups are sensational. However, the success of the festival means even more people apply for each draw making it almost impossible to be there.
News outlets get tickets from Apple for each show (the London Evening Standard gets 200 per night), and a massive amount of corporate tickets are given out as well. “Talk to people there and you’ll hear is, ‘Oh I’m so and so’s son/daughter,'” said SoulSide Funk. Random media partners in select counties around the world are also provided some tickets to giveaway, but that number is pretty limited. After Apple has given out tickets to all of its corporate partners and the press, only about 160 tickets per show are left in the iTunes Store online raffle, according to SoulSide Funk.
But don’t get too bummed out. Apple offers a free livestream of every show in glorious HD on nearly all of its devices. That way you can experience the concert without the bad smells and people taking pictures with iPads above their heads.
If you want to try your luck, there are ways to help improve your chances at attending the iTunes Festival this year. SoulSide Funk has some great tips at the link below.
Source: SoulSide Funk
