Product13 publishers2 min readPublished Updated
Apple wires a 600-capacity Battersea stage into its own broadcast control room
Apple Music Hall holds 600 people at Battersea Power Station. One show there produces a Spatial Audio master, a broadcast-ready mix and multicamera video.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Apple opened Apple Music Hall in London's Battersea Power Station on September 21, a 600-capacity room with a 38-foot-wide stage that can be set front-facing or in the round.
- The venue is hardwired for 16 or more cameras feeding a purpose-built broadcast control room, with infrastructure that supports iPhone video capture running alongside traditional broadcast cameras.
- Engadget reports the room runs a 48-speaker Spatial Audio system with Dolby Atmos, 16 camera mounting locations and a full live streaming facility.
- Apple says performances from the venue will be livestreamed globally so that fans outside London can watch the one-time-only shows.
- TechRadar reports the venue fully opens on September 28, with no artists announced for it yet.
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Why it matters
- capability An act that could not fund a mobile recording truck can now leave a single night with three finished assets, so the production budget stops being the thing that decides whether a live record exists.
- exposure Anyone who books the room is recording inside Apple's own plant, and with ownership and exclusivity unpublished, a manager has to get both in writing before the load-in.
- decision Apple Music's supply of exclusive live content becomes a scheduling question in a building it controls; a rival wanting comparable output has to rent capture capacity or build its own.
- contradiction TechRadar's headline says Apple bought a London gig venue, while Apple describes a brand-new venue it opened and Engadget places it at Apple's UK headquarters. Whether the room was acquired or purpose-built changes how cheaply Apple can repeat it in another city.
A band without a label production budget can load in at Battersea, play to 600 people and walk out the same night with a multitrack recording mixed in Spatial Audio, a broadcast-ready mix and multicamera video [8]. Booking that yourself means a mobile recording truck and a mix session weeks later. Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music and International Content, told Wallpaper: "It's important for us to help and provide smaller artists with a smaller space, that has state-of-the-art technology and is really plug-and-play" [10].
Schusser described the day as one continuous process. "You can come in, do an interview..., get your photography and social media done, play a show, broadcast worldwide, and get a high-quality Spatial Audio recording out of it," he told Wallpaper [11]. The interview leg happens in the same building, because Apple has moved all of Apple Music Radio's London-based hosts and shows into new studios at Battersea [12].
Three files come out of one night: the Spatial Audio master, the broadcast mix, the video [21]. Two recording and mix studios sit behind the stage, and a performance can be mixed in Spatial Audio live or after the fact [3]. Apple did not disclose who owns those files, or whether a master cut in its studios can be released on a rival service [19].
TechRadar noted that Apple confirmed the shows will be livestreamed [15]. Apple Music Radio already streams 24/7 free around the world [23], so an open stream is at least plausible. Engadget put the balance plainly: Apple "will certainly be the primary beneficiary of the new venue, though up-and-coming artists will too" [17].
Apple's announcement leads with heritage brickwork, fluted arches and bronze balconies [13]. Engadget noted the dressing rooms overlook Battersea Power Station's shopping and dining floors [20].
What would this production day cost to hire elsewhere, and what rights does the artist keep in the master, the video and the stream? An act that could never have afforded the truck and keeps non-exclusive rights is getting production close to free. An act that could have afforded it is paying in distribution control for equipment it could have rented. Six months after a show, both cases are checkable: look for the Spatial Audio master on services other than Apple Music, and for the video on the artist's own channel.
Other services are building rooms in London too. TechRadar noted that Spotify opened a Listening Lounge there a few months ago, a high-end stereo room that is not for live music and cannot be entered by simply buying a ticket [18].
What to watch
- Whether the first announced line-up leans on unsigned acts, as Schusser's plug-and-play pitch implies, or on label-backed names.
- Whether Apple or an artist's team publishes terms on who keeps the master and whether it can go to rival services.
- Whether the global livestreams sit behind an Apple Music subscription or run free like Apple Music Radio.