All the biggest streaming companies can’t get enough of live events these days.
Recently Hulu announced that it had reached a deal to stream sets from C3’s popular music festivals Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits, through 2023 (DIS).
Netflix is reportedly investigating live streaming options, which could possibly include live sets from its Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival (NFLX), and YouTube (GOOGL) has been broadcasting performances from Coachella of late.
There’s a few likely reasons behind the move.
The obvious one is that when new technology is developed, or refined to be more usable and cost-efficient, companies and tech-types will begin exploring ways it can unlock opportunities…while also making certain they’re not left behind in the gold rush.
The pandemic has fueled a desire for more collective events, while lingering concerns about covid has also made people both wary of gathering in groups while also looking for ways to shake off feelings of isolation.
Plus, social media has always been good at instilling a feeling of FOMO, and if you can’t be at a super cool-looking event in person, watching it on your TV (and perhaps live-tweeting your reaction with your fellow fans) might be your next best option.
Now Apple’s streaming music subscription is getting into the live music game, and it’s teaming up with one of the biggest names in pop music to kick it all off.
Apple Music Live Brings Harry’s House To Your House
Omnipresent pop star Harry Styles, whose latest single “As It Was” has been the number one Billboard single for weeks, will release his new album “Harry’s House” this week.
To celebrate, Apple’s music streaming service Apple Music Live will livestream Style’s concert from UBS Arena in Long Island, New York. The show will be available to anyone with a subscription (which can cost between $4.99 a month for students to $14.99 for a family plan) at no extra cost.
"One Night Only in New York" will be available to stream at 9pm EST on Friday, with encores on May 22nd at noon ET and May 26th at 5AM. It’s unclear if the show will be available on demand afterwards.
The show will kick off Apple Music Live, a new concert series that Apple says will have “your favorite artists.” What that means, and whose favorites will get the nod, is unclear at the moment.
Apple Music Is Still Trying To Overtake Spotify
Apple Music launched in 2015, as the company was phasing out track-by-track purchases on iTunes and pivoting into the streaming world.
Perhaps because Spotify (SPOT) had almost a decade on it, and as other streaming services like TIDAL began entering the field, Apple has struggled in the streaming market.
According to Midia Research, ”Apple Music subscribers made up 15% of all streaming service listeners in the global market in the second quarter of 2021, placing it in a distant second place behind Spotify.”
Now, Apple is one of the biggest companies in the world, and it’s frequently said that its streaming service is basically a loss leader to get people to buy the iPhones they’ll be using to stream that music.
But Apple is not a company that is accustomed to being less than the leader in any field it enters. In the past, Apple Music aimed to bridge the gap with live events like The 1975 and exclusive documentaries and podcasts radio shows from Zane Lowe.
Unlike in the world of Netflix and Hulu, streaming exclusives in the world of music are vanishingly rare. (But go ahead and make a Neil Young joke if you want.)
There’s just not enough money in the world for Apple to make it worthwhile for, say, Taylor Swift to take her catalog away from everyone else. But exclusive live music concerts just might be what the company needs to make up some ground.
