Apple’s Eddy Cue Shares More Details About ‘Planet of the Apps’ [VIDEO]

Apple’s first original TV show, a competition series about the hunt for the next big mobile app, is finally showing a bit of itself and its star advisory board.

Credit: Recode / YouTube

The Cupertino company’s first original series, dubbed Planet of the Apps, which will debut exclusively on its music subscription service sometime in the spring, was shown at length on Monday at Recode‘s Code Media conference.

In the clip, which you can watch below, Apple Music’s Zane Lowe narrates as app developers pitch their app in 60 seconds. If the celebrity judges – Jessica Alba, Will.i.am and Gwyneth Paltrow, among others – are interested, the developer gets a chance for more pitching time.

Once an app has made it through the first round, the developer will get to work with an advisor to firm up plans for turning it into a business, while also receiving guidance from people at Yelp, Uber, and other major tech firms.

The final round will see the developers pitch their proposals to investors from VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, which has previously pumped money into Snapchat, Giphy, Nest and TaskRabbit. The winners stand to receive millions of dollars in funding and will have their apps featured in the App Store when they launch.

A description on the official website previously read: “Join us on the search for the next great app in a new original series. Those selected will have the chance to receive hands-on guidance from some of the most influential experts in the tech community, featured placement on the App Store, and funding from top-tier VCs.”

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said that Planet of the Apps will premiere in April, and be available exclusively on Apple Music and in its own app, with new episodes airing weekly instead of all at once.

Cue told Recode “We think videos can be a very important part of Apple Music. We think it’s one of the differentiating factors we can add.”

The executive later added “We think that these shows bring something to customers that hasn’t been seen before, so there’s something unique, special that we’re bringing to the table. And I think that there are more ideas like that that we have, so we hope to continue doing more.”

You can check out the full interview below:

YouTube video

And if you haven’t seen it–here’s the Planet of the Apps trailer…yay or nay?

YouTube video

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