Apple Music Festival Officially Canceled After 10-Year Run

Apple has confirmed that it has discontinued its annual Apple Music Festival after ten years. The annual music festival, formerly known as the iTunes Festival, usually ran for a month at a time with concerts every night at London’s Roundhouse venue.

Apple confirmed the discontinuation of the Apple Music Festival to Music Business Worldwide yesterday. The site claims that Apple isn’t completely shutting down its efforts in hosting its own live music concerts. It’s being speculated that Apple is concentrating on one-off shows and smaller gigs featuring "Up Next” artists.

Apple already has a history of co-hosting/partnering for smaller shows. The company was a partner during Haim and Skepta's shows in London, and Arcade Fire in Brooklyn. Apple was also present during the South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Texas earlier this year. At SXSW, Apple backed shows from Lana Del Rey, Vince Staples and DJ Khaled.

In addition to possibly concentrating on smaller live events, Apple is currently working on original video content. The tech giant has already released two original shows that are available to watch on Apple Music, the company’s music streaming service.

First, it released the reality show “Planet of the Apps” back in June, then it premiered “Carpool Karaoke" in August. Most recently, it was reported that Apple is planning to spend $1 billion to make its own lineup of original video content. Apple is slowly transitioning into its own video streaming service, and perhaps the cancellation of the Apple Music Festival was a necessity for the company at this point.

The iTunes Festival was first held in 2007 and was later rebranded to the Apple Music Festival in 2015 when the company launched its own music streaming service that very same year. Apple would often give out free access to UK locals fans, while also giving away tickets to contest winners through iTunes and later Apple Music. Regional radio stations also gave away free tickets to the festival as well.

The Apple Music Festival usually takes place in September and would run throughout the latter half of month with live concerts every night at the London Roundhouse. The first festival was actually held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London but was then moved to KOKO at Camden Town the following year, according to Apple Insider.

The Roundhouse became the Apple Music Festival’s home in 2009 in London, but it also held the festival in the U.S. for the first time in 2014 at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. Artists that have performed at the Festival include Adele, Oasis, Lady Gaga, Sir Paul McCartney, Elton John, Pharrell, Mumford & Sons, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay.

Apple Music Festival would have celebrated its 10th anniversary, but its cancellation means that there won’t be a festival this year. The 2016 Apple Music Festival ran from Sept. 8 to Sept. 30, and included performances from The 1975, Britney Spears, Chance the Rapper, Robbie Williams, Calvin Harris and Alicia Keys. Apple has not given out any new details on its plans for future live concerts yet.