Christine and the Queens play Webster Hall, NYC, 2015. (photo: Steven Pisano (CC 2.0))
Despite the cancellation of the Apple Music Festival in 2017, Apple continues to host concerts for specific artists.
The latest is a concert to celebrate the new album Chris by Christine and the Queens — with a special sweetener attached.
The concert will take place in Paris at the Salle Pleyel venue on September 13th at 9 pm local time. Fans who attend the show in Paris will have an exclusive look at a new documentary entitled, Apple Music Presents: Chris. The documentary will be available on Apple Music for global streaming the following day.
The concert is designed to promote the album, which will debut one week later on September 21st. Apple Music describes the accompanying documentary as a look at the creative process that went into making the album.
“Chris is an intimate peek into the intrepid French singer-songwriter-producer’s creative process while she writes and records her forthcoming album, a daring exploration of self and sexuality, identity and perception,” Apple waxes.
This new focus on releasing behind-the-scenes documentaries as exclusive content will seem familiar to those of us who remember the early days of MTV and VH1. Apple Music has published several short films about music from artists like Kesha, Ed Sheeran, and P!nk to set the service apart from competitors like Spotify by providing unique insight to fans.
Strategically, that’s a smart middle ground for streaming services and labels. Just recently, rumors suggested that UMG chief Lucian Grainge had disavowed album exclusives on streaming services, but extras like documentaries and concerts are totally fair game. In fact, they represent smart service differentiation.
Apple Music’s focus on providing one-night-only concerts as a promotional tool isn’t a new development, either.
Back in May, the company hosted a Shawn Mendes concert in Los Angeles that became available on Apple Music for streaming in its entirety shortly afterward.
Fans who are interested in attending the Christine and the Queen’s performance in Paris can do so for free by signing up to apply for tickets. Winners will be chosen at random and will receive two tickets to attend the event.
Christine’s team has been running a master’s class on launching a new CD. Just a lot of creative things starting early in the summer building hype for the September release. She’s one of my favorite artist
Love this, too bad I’m not in France or I would try to go!