Apple Music Opens 600-Capacity Venue Under Battersea HQ — SkimNews
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- Apple Music is launching a 600-capacity concert venue called Apple Music Hall beneath its UK HQ at Battersea Power Station, with every show set to be filmed and broadcast live online.
- VP Oliver Schusser told BBC News the space contains "more cameras and speakers than any venue of its size, anywhere in the world" and is expected to open in the coming weeks.
- The move comes as London's live music scene contracts — 45 venues closed in the capital last year and roughly 400 clubs shut across Britain between 2020 and 2025 — yet Schusser insisted Apple is "not trying to be in the live business" or compete with existing operators.
- The project marks Apple's return to London live music nine years after scrapping the iTunes Festival, which staged free shows by Lady Gaga, Elton John, Britney Spears and Adele at venues including Koko and The Roundhouse.
- The building also houses new studios for Apple Music's radio stations (relocating from King's Cross), plus dedicated DJ mix rooms, writing camps and rehearsal spaces — wired so artists can record a podcast, appear on radio and live-stream a gig in a single day.
- Culture secretary Lisa Nandy welcomed the launch as "a huge vote of confidence in the UK as a global creative powerhouse."
- Schusser framed the initiative as a response to Jimmy Iovine's recent critique that streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music are "one dimensional" and "an ATM machine," because they fail to connect artists with fans.
Why it matters: Apple enters a London live-music market that lost 45 venues in a single year, offering a broadcast-first model with technology and budget independent operators cannot match. The venue doubles as an Apple Music differentiator against Spotify and Amazon Music, using live content to address Iovine's stated critique that streaming leaves artists with nothing to do but wait for playlist placement.
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