The secret’s out: Apple has spent years quietly building a cutting-edge concert venue in London’s Battersea Power Station.
“Isn’t it wild that so many people would say, ‘Oh, wait a minute! They've been working on this for so long, and no one noticed,’” says Oliver Schusser, Apple's VP of Apple Music and international content. “It is a little bit of a coincidence that it's in September, where we announce hardware and software and new services. But this is what we live for. We can’t wait.”
Apple's UK headquarters has been in the power station since 2023, but Schusser first queried whether it would have a music venue around the time Apple confirmed its move to Battersea in 2016. The answer was positive, but it wasn’t the right time.
A decade on, the 600-capacity Apple Music Hall has popped up seemingly out of nowhere and is set to open imminently. Built for intimate shows with arena-level production, the venue lets artists record in Spatial Audio, walk out with a broadcast-ready mix and multicamera video, and have the performance livestreamed globally.
Music Week’s first site visit came during the hard-hat phase, with a second as the project is on the verge of completion. The room takes its cues from the power station itself, with brickwork, fluted arches and bronze balconies that reference its distinctive oriel windows. A giant glass wall opens onto the concourse and the River Thames beyond.
According to Apple, the new venue has been designed “to close the gap between intimacy and production value and allow for an unprecedented level of creative control”. Its 38ft wide stage can be reconfigured for front-facing sets or in-the-round shows, with a 48-speaker Spatial sound system positioned all around the audience. Behind it are two recording and mix studios and a broadcast control room wired for 16 or more cameras.
For Schusser, Apple Music Hall is the physical manifestation of the platform’s ethos since launch. He cites talent such as Miley Cyrus, who sat down last week with Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director and lead anchor for Apple Music 1, at the company’s Los Angeles studios ahead of the release of her new album Bass Persuades. He also brings up Elton John, whose weekly Rocket Hour show champions new acts and celebrated its 10th anniversary last year.
“It was always our vision for Apple Music to be a service for artists and to be a service for fans,” says Schusser. “If you look at the venue, it really embodies that.”
Apple has long used live music to bring its services into the real world. The company ran its iTunes Festival, later renamed the Apple Music Festival, in London from 2007 to 2016, and now has a multi-year partnership with the NFL and Roc Nation to present the Super Bowl Halftime Show. In March, its 50th anniversary celebrations featured performances from Mumford & Sons and Nia Archives outside Battersea Power Station.
Schusser sees that history as a natural extension of the company’s broader philosophy.
“I think [live music] is just a core part of culture, not just in London and in the UK, but all around the world – and we just want to be a part of that,” he opines. “Go through the years, and we've always looked at ourselves at this intersection of technology and liberal arts. And when you look at this intersection, then our services can't just be something on the internet that you can't touch or feel or experience. It needs to come alive.”
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy, meanwhile, describes the new venue as “a huge vote of confidence in the UK as a global creative powerhouse”.
“When a company of Apple's scale backs British music and talent, it's a signal of just how strong our creative sectors really are,” says Nandy. “Our industrial strategy is all about making Britain one of the best places in the world to invest, and the creative industries are a key part of that. These sectors are not only a source of immense national pride, but they also deliver real economic value for the country.”
The route artists will take to the stage is lined with photographs chosen personally by Lowe. The photos show memorable moments from the company’s past and present, featuring artists including Fred Again and Raye. Lowe previously did something similar at Apple Music’s LA base.
“As a company, when we do something, we go all in,” says Schusser. “We're all about quality, not quantity. Zane Lowe is incredibly passionate about the art backstage. He wanted it to be a representation of the work that he and the teams have done over the last 11 years since we started Apple Music.”
Apple Music Radio's London-based hosts and shows, relocating from Tileyard Studios, will now broadcast live out of Battersea with the opening of new radio studios, essentially making the site a one-stop shop for artists.
“We chose Tileyard because it became an incredible hub for creatives, and part of an up-and-coming part of town,” says Schusser. “And our goal with [Apple Music Hall] was to bring all of our creative teams together in one campus.”
The aim is for an artist to go on air, do an interview, handle social media and marketing, play a show and broadcast it worldwide, all within a few hours.
“It was quite natural for us to say we’re going to move radio to Battersea,” says Schusser, who would also like to see album launches at the venue. “You can't imagine how many ideas we have.”
For his part, Zane Lowe says that Apple Music Hall and Apple Music Studios “embodies everything that Apple Music has to offer for artists and creatives to express themselves”.
“We wanted to give artists a space that they can transform and adapt to match the storytelling of their artistry,” says the DJ. “That can be creating an incredible live show, having an intimate discussion on Apple Music Radio or as a place to engage with fans in real life. We’ve used our 10 years of experience working directly with artists to really think about every granular detail that they might need to showcase their creativity.”
Lowe’s fellow Apple Music 1 host Dotty is equally excited by the goings-on in Battersea.
“I can't wait to get started at our new home,” says Dotty, who also serves as lead cultural creator, Black Music. “The studios will allow us to work even more closely with the artists we love and are a dream space for the UK team to help artists tell their story, in their own way.”
Dotty describes the UK as “a leader and hub of music across the globe” and says it is “amazing to see Apple investing in its live music scene and artists, from launching new UK talent, to giving people a chance to see huge global stars in an intimate and incredible setting right in the heart of London.”
Here, with the countdown on to the venue's opening, Schusser speaks to Music Week about why he calls the venue “a love letter from Apple to music”, what the move means for the firm’s live ambitions and – yes – the AI question…
A view inside the Apple Music Hall
First of all, now the cat is out of the bag, can you reveal how long this project has been in the making?
“In my head, I’m thinking five years. But there were two moments for me: one is the original moment when Apple looked at the power station to become a tenant. That is more than 10 years ago now, and there was nothing there at the time. I remember asking, ‘Will there be a music venue?’ But I don't really count that. The answer at the time, by the way, was, ‘Yes, but we're not ready to talk about it. We need to build the office space first, the mall space, all these other things.’ And I think they did the right thing. This is my favourite Apple office in the world – I think it’s stunning. And then it was about five years ago when we started to figure out exactly how [the venue] would work.”
Why London, and why Battersea Power Station in particular?
“We have a rich history of live events in London. London was where we ran the iTunes Festival for 10 years. We had more than 600 bands over the 10 years, all the world's biggest superstars on stage. And we streamed all the shows worldwide – we were kind of the OGs of streaming music festivals – everyone does it now. I also believe that London is one of the greatest, if not the greatest live music city in the world. There’s such a strong interest in seeing shows, whether it’s a small show or a big stadium show like Harry Styles at Wembley. We're very committed to Battersea and to being in the UK, and there was an opportunity to take a piece of the Power Station and build a music venue that we were happy to jump on a couple of years back. I think we can contribute something to the community but also to the live scene in the UK overall, because a venue of this size is quite rare.”
What was the biggest challenge in putting it all together?
“Just time. You wish these things could have happened faster. We had the first conversation about this before there was even a roof. We wanted it to be really special. When people come in, we want them to feel like when you walk into the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. It's an incredible space that feels great for artists, great for fans. It feels very Apple, and those things take a little bit of time. There were things in between, from Covid and other things, but I don't want to complain. We're here now. We're almost ready, and we're excited for the opening show.”
Can you tell us what the venue mean for Apple Music itself?
“I believe that this venue embodies everything that Apple Music stands for. When we launched Apple Music, we were obsessed with this idea of trying to make it more than just 100 million songs where people press play. We wanted to create an experience where artists can participate, so we created studios around the world. It was really artist relations for us. We wanted to make it a space where artists feel incredibly comfortable and happy – small artists and large artists – hence the pretty expansive backstage area. And we wanted it to be a really awesome space for fans: the onboarding, how you walk into the venue. There's no bad seat in the house. It's got great tech, great light, great audio – exactly what Apple Music is about.”
Which technical features are you most keen for people to know about?
“Apart from the fact that I wanted it to be very flexible, so that we can do small shows, big shows, shows in the round, shows in the corner and all these things, there are two aspects that are important to me that are relatively simple. Number one, we developed this new sound experience of Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos, which is a key part of why I think Apple Music is a more premium listening experience than any other service, and we wanted to reflect that in the space. We wanted artists to be able to record things in Spatial audio, but also to perform in Spatial audio. We try to really push the envelope. And then the second technical thing we focus on is that we want it to be possible to shoot as many things in this venue on iPhones. The beauty of iPhones is that they're small and you can put them in all sorts of places. I think that's going to allow us to do really exciting things over time.”
How would you sum up your ambitions for Apple Music Hall, and what would make a successful first year?
“I know it sounds a little fuzzy, but we want artists, in particular, but also fans just to have a great experience and tell us that. The biggest compliment at Apple is that people love the product. We're as proud of this as any of the products we've announced in the last few years, and hopefully people will like it.”
And how will the venue help artists and the wider live industry?
“Music is an incredible part of the economy in the UK, and touring is a big part of that, but smaller venues of roughly this size have been struggling, and that's a problem for artists, because you have artists that need to start to perform in a size like this, but then the venues don't exist and so they can't. So we see this as a really positive boost for the industry.”
What's your take on the live sector now, given the challenges you mentioned? And is Apple planning to get more involved?
“No, we're not in the ‘live business’ – and I'm saying that in air quotes. This is not the beginning of a strategy where we want to be in the venue business. This was an opportunity to do something incredible and wonderful, literally where we built our home in the UK, and it's a continuation of something we've actually done for a long time. But again, we're not really in the live business ourselves, so I'll leave that to the experts to discuss. We're really just here with one little venue.”
That said, how could this “one little venue” elevate Apple above your competition?
“I think artists and fans are going to be blown away. One of the beautiful things about the iTunes Festival is that everyone had a great experience. People loved it, and we're going to try to replicate that. I'm excited for people to see the space. I hope they love it as much as we all do.”
What reaction do you expect to your plans from within the industry?
“I think this is going to be a big surprise for a lot of people. I hope they will say it feels very Apple, it's very beautiful and very well done. They'll be like, ‘Wow, didn't see this coming!’ Others are about algorithms and robots and AI and so on. We're here in the music business because we love music and consider this like a love letter from Apple to music and to artists.”
Now that you’ve mentioned it, what are your general thoughts on the growth of AI and its impact on the business?
“I think we have been incredibly thoughtful, as Apple Music, with how we're dealing with it. Our priority was to develop technology to identify AI. Our priority was to make sure that rights-holders, labels in this case, or distributors, tag the content. Our priority was to make sure that the fraud isn't increasing. We have the lowest fraud rate in the industry, and so it’s important for us that that doesn't change, and we're taking the right measures step by step. I'm very proud of the work that the team has done to deal with it, and we'll continue to do so in the future.”
Inside the VIP greenroom
More generally, what music business issues are concerning you at the moment, and what's exciting you?
“I think we need to talk about music. We need to talk about music and artists, and provide great spaces for artists – whether it's on our services, or in events – and then everything else is secondary. We’re trying to make Apple Music a premium, high-quality experience with every feature that we add: the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it works, and we're trying to give artists and fans the best experience. There's a lot of business chatter and technology chatter and, of course, we’re in that too, but that's not our priority. Our priority is to talk about music and art.”
Finally, do you have a message for the wider industry?
“At Apple, we've got music in our DNA. Steve [Jobs, Apple co-founder] was a big music fan. We built hardware for creatives for the longest time. We had Logic and GarageBand being a part of our pro tools for artists. You could make music videos or photography on the Mac. So it really wasn't a surprise that he came out with an MP3 player, which was the iPod, and with iTunes, and later on with Apple Music. Our passion is working with artists and doing something wonderful for fans and customers, and that has always been our message. We’ve always been the most artist-friendly service. We pay every artist the same [headline royalty rate]. We also pay every artist by the way: there's no such thing as having to hit a threshold first.
"We've always had love for small artists and big artists, and trying to find the next big song. At our iPhone event [earlier this month], the music was carefully curated by the team to pick just the most wonderful artists. Some of them become superstars. Remember when we picked music for our ads over the years? So many artists got discovered through that because we have people on our team who really think about tomorrow’s hits. They have good taste, and you can’t really buy taste – you either have it or not. That's what we're all about, and I think this venue is literally a physical embodiment of that.”
