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Apple is making a TV show. It’s called “Planet of the Apps,” and it’s literally celebrities telling app developers why their apps will never be profitable and will never be used by anyone. The apps are judged by a star-studded panel: Jessica Alba, Will.i.am and Gwyneth Paltrow, among others.
Instead of an elevator pitch, developers and entrepreneurs make an “escalator pitch.” Yes, the pitch is made on an escalator.
“‘Planet of the Apps’ is coming to Apple Music in the next few months,” said Ben Silverman at the Code Media conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, Calif. He’s the CEO of Propagate, the production company that’s partnering with Apple to create the show.
Of course, “Planet of the Apps” comes with an app, where viewers can swipe left or swipe right to signal whether if the app seems promising.
“And the moment that you swipe and it goes to the screen, you’re reminded that apps, like music, like television, like film, are a dominant part of our cultural landscape. And when you see it, you see what screen-enabled storytelling apps are,” said Silverman.
The show has also partnered with Lightspeed Ventures, a well-respected Silicon Valley venture capital firm, which invests millions of dollars in winning the apps battle. Developers are actually playing to get funded.
Successful apps will also be given prime real estate in Apple’s App Store. It’s important to remember that Apple invented the idea of an app store in 2008, so if any tech company were going to make a game out of the industry, it’d definitely be Apple.
Watch the full with interview with Eddy Cue and Ben Silverman below.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
