iTunes Festival is back for 2014 and ticket lottery begins for Pharrell Williams, Maroon 5 and more

Apple has announced that the eighth annual iTunes Festival will be held from the beginning of September and has released an initial list of some of the bands and artists that will be playing.

The event is headlined by Maroon 5, with Pharrell Williams, Beck, Sam Smith, Blondie, Kylie, Robert Plant and Kasabian also among those confirmed as playing on their own individual nights.

As usual, tickets are free but are allocated in a lottery format. You apply for tickets through a dedicated iTunes Festival page on the desktop or mobile hubs and cross your fingers.

All gigs will be held in the traditional iTunes Festival venue of The Roundhouse in Camden, London.

"The iTunes Festival in London is back with another stunning line-up of world class performers and tremendous new acts," said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.

"These live shows capture the heart and soul of iTunes and we love bringing them to our customers in the Roundhouse, as well as to the millions of people watching all over the world for free."

If you don't manage to get tickets, all performances will be streamed live and be available on-demand across Apple's iOS devices and Apple TV. You will also be able to watch them through iTunes on a PC or Mac.

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