Apple has announced a new Vision Pro music series called Concert for One. Photo Credit: Apple
Moments after releasing a Vision Pro “immersive music experience” featuring The Weeknd, Apple has teed up an exclusive performance from Raye as part of a new series called Concert for One.
Apple just recently unveiled Concert for One in an announcement reiterating the release of The Weeknd’s Open Hearts. We covered the latter, shot specifically for the Vision Pro and available to view via Apple Store demos of the high-end headset starting today, earlier this week.
But the iPhone developer evidently intends to keep on rolling out “Apple Immersive Video” shows for the Pro – now including Concert for One. As its name suggests, the series “invites fans to enjoy intimate performances…from the best seat in the house.”
And as mentioned, Apple has tapped Raye (real name Rachel Keen) to provide the first of those performances, which will debut next Friday, November 22nd. The 27-year-old recorded the set “at Air Studios in London alongside her 20-piece band,” per Apple.
On the availability front, analyst estimates have placed the $3,499 Vision Pro’s Q1 through Q3 2024 sales at approximately 370,000 units. With Raye’s Spotify monthly listener count over 74 times larger than that, attempting to bolster the reach of Concert for One beyond the Pro userbase makes sense on multiple levels.
Consequently, Apple Music is poised to expand its existing collection of exclusive performances by streaming Concert for One tracks. A page is already live for the appropriate Raye recordings (“Genesis” as well as “Escapism”), and unsurprisingly, the works will take advantage of spatial audio.
Apple has yet to disclose additional Concert for One artists, but especially with the Apple Music-sponsored Halftime Show just 86 days away, it’ll be interesting to see which acts sign on during the remainder of 2024 and into the new year.
Bigger picture, though we aren’t quite witnessing the full-scale return of streaming exclusives – referring to studio-recorded multitrack originals from commercially prominent acts, that is – Apple Music and others have perhaps become more aggressive in commissioning their own projects as of late.
To name just one example, Spotify over the summer enlisted Weezer to deliver a live performance celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Blue Album. Taking things a step further, Amazon Music earlier in November released Laufey’s “Christmas Magic” as an “Amazon Music Original track.”
Featured in the film Red One, the holiday song is only streaming in its entirety on Amazon Music and is absent from Spotify. YouTube users, for their part, will have to settle for what amounts to a preview, abruptly cutting off at the track’s 60-second mark, uploaded via the artist’s official account.
