Apple Music Hall Revealed: 1st Look Inside Apple’s New Music Venue At London HQ

Apple has just announced a new live music venue, built into its London headquarters at Battersea Power Station. Apple Music Hall, as it’s called, will host intimate performances to up to 600 people. I took a hard-hat tour of the venue some weeks ago: here’s all you need to know.

An Intimate Design Inside Battersea Power Station

The venue — which looked magnificent even in its unfinished state — sits near the river entrance to the power station, accessible by a special elevator for concert-goers.

As visitors reach the entrance to the Music Hall, they are greeted by huge walls which evoke the look of recording studios. There are also bars and a large balcony overlooking the Thames so intermission is as enjoyable as the show.

Configurable Staging And Spatial Audio Tech

The hall is configurable with movable seating banks, so artists can choose to host a smaller audience if they prefer. The stage is 38 feet wide, with numerous entrances so the artists can customize the experience further, even choosing to play in the round rather than a conventional end-on stage.

Above the regular seating, bronze balconies can hold more people. The design also incorporates original parts of the power station, from tiles to brick walls — something that even extends to the green room and other backstage areas.

Backstage Studios And Live Multitrack Recording

These are decorated with photographs of music icons, chosen by Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director.

There is a 48-speaker spatial sound system and 16 or more cameras can be hard-wired, allowing gigs to be livestreamed, controlled from a behind-the-scenes production facility.

These include two dedicated recording and mixing studios which, when I saw them, looked immaculate, elegantly designed and completely state-of-the-art. This is no surprise: the Apple Fitness+ studios in California also offer exceptional facilities.

Thanks to these backstage studios, “every performance can be captured as a multitrack recording and mixed in Spatial Audio, live or after the fact,” as Apple described it in a Newsroom post.

I mean, of course it’s no surprise that the latest and best tech is here. Apple is a company known for sanding the underside of the drawers. And everything I saw at Battersea was of the highest quality and perfect finish.

“An artist can perform an intimate live show for fans at Apple Music Hall and walk out with a finished Spatial Audio recording, a broadcast-ready mix, and multicamera video — all from a single show,” Apple went on, and I’m told it’s the artist who owns this intellectual property, not Apple.

There’s also a new website which will carry details of upcoming shows and how to get tickets: applemusichall.com.

New Apple Music Radio Studios

Apple also announced that the London-based output for Apple Music Radio will broadcast live out of Battersea with the opening of the new radio studios. These are designed for intimate conversations between artist and host, equipped so they can play live and with video walls to add to the atmosphere.

And the British government seems tickled pink with the Apple Music Hall. “This is a huge vote of confidence in the UK as a global creative powerhouse,” the Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, said.

“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. 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.”

Trust me, this is a music venue that will be worth a visit.