{"id":23711,"date":"2026-09-22T16:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/?p=23711"},"modified":"2026-09-22T17:00:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:00:33","slug":"apple-music-hall-could-be-the-start-of-something-very-familiar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/22\/apple-music-hall-could-be-the-start-of-something-very-familiar\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Music Hall Could Be the Start of Something Very Familiar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Apple has just opened Apple Music Hall<\/a><\/strong>, a brand-new 600-capacity live music venue tucked inside London\u2019s Battersea Power Station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, suddenly, I\u2019m thinking about the iTunes Music Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The new venue is built for exactly the kind of thing Apple has historically been very good at: intimate performances, ridiculous production values and a whole lot of technology quietly working behind the scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a 38-foot-wide stage, a 48-speaker Spatial Audio system, dedicated recording and mixing studios, multicamera production and the ability to livestream performances around the world. Apple is also moving its London-based Apple Music Radio shows into the same Battersea space. (Apple<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Sound familiar?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Guardian<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The iTunes Music Festival \u2014 later renamed the Apple Music Festival \u2014 ran in London for ten years, bringing artists including Adele<\/a>, Lady Gaga<\/a>, Elton John<\/a>, The 1975<\/a>, Britney Spears<\/a> and plenty more to intimate venues, before Apple ended the festival in 2017<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now Apple has built itself a permanent music venue in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple even brought up the iTunes Music Festival in today\u2019s announcement<\/a>, with Apple Music\u2019s Oliver Schusser explicitly referencing the company\u2019s history with the festival when talking about Apple Music Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\u2026 is Apple quietly laying the groundwork for a comeback?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Apple Music Festival: Battersea Edition?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s absolutely nothing official to suggest that\u2019s happening. Apple Music Hall<\/a> could simply become a home for one-off performances, artist sessions, radio events and globally streamed shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But the ingredients are suddenly very<\/em> familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A permanent London venue.
A global streaming platform.
Spatial Audio.
Apple Music Radio.
Live broadcasts.
And a company that clearly hasn\u2019t forgotten its old festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not saying the iTunes Music Festival is coming back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just saying: Apple has built the perfect place for it<\/strong> \u2014 and that this could be the venue for a whole new age of exclusive<\/em> concerts for some very lucky fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple has just opened Apple Music Hall, a brand-new 600-capacity live music venue tucked inside London\u2019s Battersea Power Station. And, suddenly, I\u2019m thinking about the iTunes Music Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2786,174,2131],"tags":[1735,3773,3775,3778,3768,3772,1704,3776,3774,427,3770,3769,3777,3771,3767],"class_list":["post-23711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple-blog","category-blog","category-music-app-store","tag-announcement","tag-apple-music-festival","tag-apple-music-hall","tag-apple-music-radio","tag-battersea","tag-itunes-music-festival","tag-live","tag-live-music","tag-london","tag-music","tag-newsroom","tag-power-station","tag-spatial-audio","tag-venue","tag-zane-lowe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23711"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23718,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23711\/revisions\/23718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}