It’s been an annual event in London since 2007 but Apple announced Wednesday that its iTunes Festival is coming to the US for the first time.
Artists including Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Pitbull, Keith Urban, and ZEDD will be hoping to take the roof off Austin’s 2750-seat Moody Theater when they hit the stage across five nights (March 11-15) during the SXSW film, tech and music bash.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, commented on the event in a release, saying, “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.”
With the UK-based event, which usually takes place each year in the fall and lasts an entire month, music fans can put their name down for free tickets, though at the Austin event only SXSW badge holders can throw their name in the hat – more information can be found here.
If Texas is a million miles away but you’d still like to check out some of the performances at the festival, Apple will be offering all the sets free as a live and on-demand stream via its iTunes store, which can be accessed via any iDevice, Apple TV, Mac computer or PC.
Across the festival’s seven-year history in London, more than 400 artists have taken to the stage in front of some 430,000 fans, with millions more watching online. The iTunes Festival is another way for the Cupertino company to publicize its online store, and no doubt scores it a load more content sales in the process.
