Apple is biting into the SXSW craze by bringing its iTunes festival to the United States for the first time this March. The annual music extravaganza, which launched in 2007 at The Roundhouse in London, typically hosts 30 days of performances but this year, Apple is cutting the event to a five-day series packed with performances set to include top acts like Pitbull, Imagine Dragons and Zedd, Variety reports.
“The iTunes Festival in London has become an incredible way for Apple to share its love of music with our customers,” Eddy Cue, Apple senior VP of Internet software and services, said in a statement. “We’re excited about the incredible lineup of artists performing and SXSW is the perfect place to debut the first iTunes Festival in the U.S.”
SMH at Yeezy, who might have nixed himself from the line-up last week when he called out Apple’s CEO at his recent Yeezus show in New York. In his words, “Tim Cook, the head of Apple, stop trying to get performers to play your festivals for free, you are rich as fuck.”
Kanye aside, the festival is set to also host acts Keith Urban, Willy Nelson and Coldplay.