The Apple Music Festival was a concert series held by Apple, Inc. and inaugurated in 2007. Free tickets were given to Apple Music, iTunes and DICE users who lived in the United Kingdom, through localized prize draws. Performances were streamed live and available to view afterwards, free of charge, for Apple Music members on their Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, and Android phones. In London, the Apple Music Festival became an annual event taking place in September at the Roundhouse arts centre in Camden Town. The series made its United States debut with five days of free performances at the Moody Theater in March 2014, alongside the South by Southwest (SXSW) music showcase in Austin, Texas.

Hadouken! were a British band formed in London in 2006 by singer, songwriter and producer James Smith and synth player Alice Spooner along with guitarist Daniel "Pilau" Rice, bassist Christopher Purcell and drummer Nick Rice. The band took its name from the special attack of the same name from the Street Fighter video game series. It was in Leeds that Hadouken! began their own record label, Surface Noise Records.