Last year, movie theaters catered to two major fan bases by showing concert films on the big screen with Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour and the Beyoncé documentary Renaissance. Since each of their commercial successes, it makes us think what other artists should make concert films next. Enter Billie Eilish. As an Oscar-winning actor No time to die And barbie singer set to release third studio albumshe announced a unique listening party that will take place at select AMC theaters.
On Monday, Billie Eilish surprised fans while waiting Hit me hard and soft with the news that she and Finneas will be visiting New York’s Barclays Center in person on Wednesday, May 15 and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles to play the album for fans at a free event. On top of that, Eilish also announced on Tuesday that there will also be listening parties at nearly 130 AMC theaters across the United States. This is the first of its kind and a truly exciting development for the future of movie theaters.
Billie Eilish hosts listening parties in movie theaters
If you are lucky enough to purchase tickets on the AMC Theaters Website (many sessions are already sold out), you’ll have the chance to enjoy a one-hour “album listening experience” including at Dolby Theaters, alongside other Billie Eilish fans for $5 each. The experience is in collaboration with Apple Music and a portion of the profits from ticket sales will be donated to the AMC Cares charitable fund.
The listening event will allow fans to be among the first to hear the highly anticipated album, and the experience would be accompanied by spatial audio visuals with Dolby Atmos, which “delivers a spatial sound experience like the creator l “had intended – where sounds are placed and moved individually in three-dimensional space, giving you the sensation of sound coming from all around you, even above and behind you”, by Dolby.
Why I hope this starts a new trend
As a person who experienced the splendor of seeing Eras Tour in cinemas among other Swifties, I like the idea of movie theaters embracing music communities more with events like this. Nothing can beat the experience of seeing an artist live, but not everyone has the access or funding to go see a huge pop star like Billie Eilish live. This listening event is unique and I hope it starts a new trend where more musicians partner with theater chains to create a memorable experience for music fans when new albums are released.
Although I wish there were a lot more screenings of this, and they weren’t all at 3 p.m., it’s going to be great for these fans to experience the album this way for the first time among strangers. This will offer the public a common experience. I’ve seen more and more record stores announce listening events, but hearing Billie Eilish’s new record with some of the best speakers in the world seems like such a glorious experience. Eilish is already a fashion pioneerand I hope it inspires the music industry and theater operators to collaborate more with this next event.
Hit me hard and soft comes out May 17.
