Apple is a company known for its incredible advancements in technology, as it has brought consumers the next generation of touchscreens, music sharing, and smartphone technology from the iPod Shuffle to the iPhone 7. But now, for the first time, Apple has greenlit an original show at its recent Worldwide Developers Conference. The show is known as Planet of the Apps and was pitched by its producers Ben Silverman and Will.i.am, the show will center around a plot similar to the show Shark Tank.
Hosted by DJ Zane Lowe, entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas for new apps at Lightspeed Venture Partners in front of a panel of advisors, G.O.O.P. founder Gwyneth Paltrow, Honest Co. co-founder Jessica Alba, musician and former member of the “Black Eyed Peas” Will.i.am, and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. The advisors will hear the sales pitch from the entrepreneurs and decide whether or not they wish to hear more about the app. If the app receives enough positive votes the entrepreneurs give a longer demo presentation about the app and are soon matched with an advisor who will help them the most in organizing their business and their venture capital pitch at the end of the episode.
The viewers will only be able to see an hour of what is actually a process over the course of several weeks, the advisors meet with entrepreneurs repeatedly when not filming, however, it is not done for the sake of the show, but rather for the business of the entrepreneurs themselves.
The advisors even continue to meet with the people even after the episode has finished filming, “I’ve developed really nice relationships with them, and some of them are bringing me on as an official advisor, I’ve had a great time; I’ve learned a lot,” says Gwyneth Paltrow. The Apple senior vice president ironically joked about not putting Will.i.am and Ben Silverman on an escalator (referencing the concept that a sales pitch should only take as long as an elevator or escalator) when they first pitched the series to him. However, Cue took decided to green light the show, which he decided would not only help promote Apple’s App Store but also help Apple spread their offer of original programming for their Apple Music service. Apple also plans to release a show known as Carpool Karaoke, the two shows are meant to help boost the subscribers of the company’s relatively recent music streaming service Apple Music. Apple intends to use original programming as a way to lure in new potential subscribers. Apple’s new series Planet of the Apps is now available for a limited time to all Apple Music subscribers, be sure to tune in and subscribe for new episodes weekly.
