Kanye West (Kanye West) pigeon pigeon new album “Donda” finally (shortly) meet the fans, this time he chose to cooperate with Apple Music.
On the evening of July 22, local time, Kanye held a grand audition for his tenth studio album “Donda” at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, USA. According to reports, more than 40,000 people watched the audition on the spot, and tickets were sold out early after the announcement of the event.
At the same time, Apple Music also broadcasted the audition in real time exclusively through its music video live broadcast service Apple Music TV launched last year.
Kanyebi was 110 minutes late for his expected opening time. This 48-minute audition played all the songs in Kanye’s new album. Because it was just a trial listening, Kanye did not sing or even interact with the audience in any language with the microphone, but was very self-conscious with the music. The ground wandered in the middle of the 7000 square meter field, during which no one else was on the field.
His style is also quite eye-catching. The red and white venues formed a sharp contrast, not afraid that the audience could not find it. What’s more special is that he also wears a layer of silk stockings on his head, so that people can only see his facial features in a vague way.
The huge stadium, the white cloth-covered venue, the cold chasing lights, and the few performers… This familiar scene reminds netizens of an opening ceremony that was just staged not long ago.
However, it was just such a seemingly weird audition that set a new record.
On July 26, Time Warner’s entertainment media TMZ cited sources familiar with the matter that a total of 3.3 million people watched the live broadcast of the audition through Apple Music TV that night, and set a record for Apple Music TV’s ever-watching live broadcast. The previous record was 1.8 million viewers, which was held by hip-hop singers Gucci Mane and Jeezy in the Verzuz battle during the epidemic last year.
In fact,AppleI booked Kanye’s audition early.
In the NBA Finals held earlier this month,AppleThe audition was previewed in the Beats Studio Buds advertisement that was broadcast during the period. This advertisement used Kanye’s new album “No Child Left Behind” as the soundtrack and invited American track and field star and sprinter Shaka. Li Richardson (ShaCarri Richardson) starred (but it is said that the latter was disqualified from the Tokyo Olympics because he tested positive for marijuana…).
This event also really made Apple Music live broadcast a wave of presence among the audience.
Apple Music TV isAppleA music video live broadcast service launched on October 19 last year, a bit like the early MTV, will rotate music-related videos 24 hours a day, including “MV exclusive premiere, specially planned music programs, performances Live broadcast and leaderboard topics” and so on. Users can use this service in Apple Music and Apple TV apps. Initially, the service was only open to users in the United States, but in April this year it was expanded to the United Kingdom and Canada.
Similar to the exclusive strategy adopted by Apple Music in the early days, the current Apple Music TV is also trying to attract users by launching exclusive video content. For example, when Apple Music TV was launched, it exclusively premiered the music videos of two songs by 88rising’s singer Joji’s “777” and rapper Saint Jhn’s “Gorgeous”. In February of this year, Billie Eilish was the protagonist. The documentary “The Worlds a Little blur” also premiered live on Apple Music TV, as was the audition of Kanye’s new album.
Prior to Apple Music TV, Apple Music had been involved in original video, and has always had its own live audio service (for example, Apple Music 1, which was formerly Beats 1), but it has not launched a live video service that combines the two.
There is a reason why Apple Music has not launched this service for a long time. Although on the surface, Apple Music’s launch of a live video service could not be more appropriate, but in fact it has to face the mountains of YouTube, Vevo and MTV. , Content and experience may not be able to fight.
The reason for choosing to launch Apple Music TV in the second half of last year was directly related to the impact of the epidemic. The new crown epidemic has forced people to consume online at home, and the commercial value of music live broadcast has also been proven during the new crown epidemic. For example, there are reports that Big Hit and the US live broadcast company Kiswe Mobile co-hosted bulletproof in June 2020. The BTS online concert “BANG BANG CON The Live” received nearly US$20 million in box office revenue and attracted more than 756,000 people to watch online at the same time-which was already a high number at the time.
There is no more appropriate time to launch a live video broadcast than taking advantage of the “dongfeng” of the epidemic, and this action of Apple Music has the meaning to be more or less in line with its competitors.
For example, on September 1st last year, one month before Apple Music TV was launched, Amazon MusicAmazonIts live broadcast platform Twitch cooperated to embed Twitch’s live broadcast function into the Amazon Music app on iOS and Android devices. Earlier, Apple Music’s biggest competitor, Spotify, also reported that it was developing a feature called “virtual events”, which was considered a precursor to Spotify’s entry into live broadcasting.
The discussion about the single business model of music streaming media is no longer a day or two. Taking advantage of the epidemic to launch a live video service and try to monetize more may have become the same choice of each company.
But for Apple Music, the greater mind may still be in serving its own Apple ecosystem.
Apple’s third-quarter financial report just released on July 28 showed that its service business revenue continued to create a new high in revenue, achieving a 33% increase from the previous month to $17.5 billion. This revenue is also far ahead of Mac, iPad and wearable devices. And other hardware product lines. And service products including Apple Music are also regarded by Apple as the future of its revenue growth.
If Apple Music is for mobile devices such as the iPhone, then a large part of Apple Music TV is for Apple TV. Compared with watching a concert on the small screen of the mobile phone, wouldn’t it be better to watch the big screen? Cool? Even compared to the service under the Apple Music name, Apple Music TV is more like being born for Apple TV. After all, no one will watch live broadcasts with their mobile phones 24 hours a day, but it may be possible to turn on the TV.
And if Apple Music TV can provide better exclusive content (just as Apple TV+ also regards exclusive as a selling point), users will rely on Apple TV more. This is the result that Apple most hopes to see.
The live audition of Kanye’s new album will be a good attempt for Apple. More importantly, compared to conventional carousel programs (which of course is also a kind of live broadcast), live performances have greater cohesion for users, and it is easier to achieve user conversion in a short period of time, which is very fast to attract new users In this way, Kanye’s record-breaking live broadcast should also give Apple a taste of the sweetness.
These may also explain why since the epidemic, domestic music streaming media platforms have also been eyeing live performances.for exampleTencent MusicThe “TME live” music live performance brand that the entertainment group launched early due to the epidemic,NetEaseDuring the epidemic, Yunmusic also launched online performance live programs such as the Yuncun Bedroom Music Festival, hard-court LIVE and light-up live action.
Of course, for Apple Music, live broadcast of performances must also be beneficial. For example, the most direct benefit is to use the live broadcast to preheat the songs or albums that will be launched on the platform (preferably the next day)-even if the singer chooses It is distributed on all platforms, but the exclusive live broadcast of performances can largely serve to gather users on this platform.
It’s just that sometimes the plan can’t keep up with the changes. This time Kanye was lucky to release the new album “Donda” named after his mother the day after the audition was over (July 23), but he once again pigeons For everyone-news that the album will be postponed until August 6th. Apple Music must be quite helpless.
(Article source: Pinwan)
.