Apple announced on Wednesday that it will be offering a free stream of Paul McCartney performing his new album, Kisses on the Bottom, through iTunes and the company’s Apple TV settop box. The performance takes place on February 9th at 10:00 PM EST, and will be streamed live from Capitol Studios.
Paul McCartney iTunes Promotion
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The new album is Sir Paul’s interpretation of 16 standards, most of which were originally made popular during his youth, including “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” “My Valentine,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” and more. The album also includes performances by Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, with Dianna Krall singing some backup vocals.
While Sir Paul is streaming this live performance to promote the release of the new album, the former Beatles member has also pulled his music from dedicated streaming services, including the very popular Spotify. Digital Music News reported that both Paul McCartney’s solo work and albums from Wings have been removed from several streaming services (Spotify said that his material hasn’t been available on its service since 2010).
Other artists, including The Black Keys and Adele have also been removing their music from streaming services, apparently out of fear that it threatens their album sales. Sir Paul, along with the other Beatles (or their survivors) and their business management company, Apple Corps., have a long history of being slow to embrace new music technologies.
Since coming to terms with Apple Inc. in November of 2010, however, there have been frequent partnerships between the various Beatles-related entities and iTunes to promote digital downloads of their music. February 9th’s free live streaming performance is the first such event for Sir Paul through iTunes.
You can watch the stream through its dedicated iTunes page or through your Apple TV by choosing “iTunes Live” from the Internet menu.
Kisses on the Bottom is priced at US$9.99 on iTunes and is available now.