Apple kicks off iTunes Festival with Deadmau5 concert

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Photo by Joshua Law
Photo by Joshua Law

Apple’s 2014 iTunes Festival begins today with performances every day through the month of September. Like previous years, each performance will be streamed in HD for free through iTunes and the festival’s dedicated Apple TV channel.

To kick things off, electronic artist Deadmau5 is headlining tonight at The Roundhouse in London. Apple has revealed that Spanish singer and conductor Placido Domingo will close the festival on September 30th.

The full iTunes Festival schedule is up on iTunes, and you’ll see Apple promoting it heavily though social media channels and iTunes Store banners throughout the month. Even the wallpapers for demo MacBooks in some Apple stores have been changed to promote the festival.

Artists perform for free during the festival and in turn are given top treatment by Apple on the front page of the iTunes Store. It’s also an important time of the year for Apple to network directly with artists, a practice that will probably only prove more beneficial for the company now that Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre are employees.

This year’s festival will include performances by artists like Beck, David Guetta, 5 Seconds of Summer, Tony Bennet, Calvin Harris, Chrissie Hynde, Robert Plant, Sam Smith, Maroon 5, Pharrell Williams, The Script, Jessie J, Ben Howard, Mary J. Blige, Lenny Kravitz, and Ed Sheeran. Each day’s performance will begin with a lesser-known opening act followed by a headliner.

If you can’t catch a livestream of a particular concert, Apple leaves a recording up to watch until the festival is over.

You can stream the iTunes Festival through iTunes on the desktop, the iTunes Festival iOS app, and on the Apple TV.

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