Apple gave a first look at its new original unscripted series, Planet of the Apps, at the Code Media conference on Monday. It's essentially Shark Tank meets The Voice, with entrepreneurs giving pitching to four celebrity advisors --- Jessica Alba, Will.i.am, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gary Vaynerchuk --- who can either pick up their app or pass. If multiple advisors are interested in an app, the developer must pick who they would most like to work with throughout the creation, marketing, and testing of the app.
The show will cover this process, with external advisors dropping in to help, and ultimately devs will get a chance to pitch in front of Lightspeed Venture Partners. The winner of the series will receive $10 million in funding as well as prominent placement on the App Store as a featured app.
Episodes will be released one at a time alongside a standalone app with bonus clips and more information.
Apple's senior VP of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, confirmed that the show will debut this spring on Apple Music as a way to both promote the service and differentiate from Spotify. "We saw this an an opportunity to do some new and creative things that haven't been done before," said Cue. "We think video can be a very important part of Apple Music."
This isn't the only piece of original programming that Apple is working on right now. It also bought the rights to Carpool Karaoke, which is set to debut in April on Apple Music, and is reportedly working on a semi-biographical series chronicling Dr. Dre's rise called "Vital Signs." While these show are centered on Apple's music or app businesses, there are also rumor that the company is looking into serialized drama and feature-length films, in an effort to directly compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon.