Every year Apple hosts a month of live music gigs as part of the iTunes Festival. It starts Friday and, for anyone not attending the 60-plus London concerts in person, you’ll be able to stream them live to a free iPad and iPhone app in HD.

Playing at the Roundhouse in Camden, Paul Simon is the first artist to take to the stage this year. Later in the month will follow Coldplay, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Chase & Status, Moby and more. My request last year for more black-metal bands and experimental grindcore, it apparently seems, fell on deaf ears.

Apple doesn’t charge anyone for tickets to the gigs, but the reason behind their existence is that Apple gets to sell the recordings of the concerts exclusively on iTunes. Over the last five years I’ve bought a number of them (Pendulum being a favorite from a couple of years ago).

But it makes me wish more festival organizers would do this the other way around — free recordings of the gigs you paid to see at festivals. Or perhaps a handful of free tracks to choose from an entire festival’s lineup, with the complete collection put on sale. There’s no better live recording than one created during the night you attended.

If you want to check out some of the live shows from the forthcoming iTunes Festival shows though, go and grab the free festival app from iTunes. Alternatively, you can watch it live through iTunes starting Friday night.