Apple Music director Ian Rogers makes surprise departure for new job

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited September 2015
One of the core Beats executives Apple acquired in its 2014 $3 billion takeover, Ian Rogers, has already left the company to pursue other ventures outside of the music streaming business, a report revealed on Friday.




Apple has confirmed the departure but declined to comment any further, the Financial Times said. Anonymous sources told the publication that Rogers is leaving California to work for a Europe-based company in a separate industry.

Rogers' move comes just two months after the launch of Beats 1 radio, a project he spearheaded the development of. This reportedly included the hiring of former BBC Radio DJ Zane Lowe, and the genesis of the station's show lineup. Officially Rogers was a part of the Apple Music team.

Work colleagues were surprised by the news, the Times claimed. Prior to joining Apple in August 2014, Rogers was the CEO of Beats Music, the on-demand streaming service used as the foundation for Apple Music.

It's not clear whether Rogers was unhappy with his tenure at Apple or if he simply wanted to seize on a new opportunity. Also unknown is who, if anyone, his replacement might be.

Both Apple Music and Beats 1 are considered key to the company's digital services business, as music download sales are continuing to decline with the growing popularity of streaming. A critical milestone is coming at the end of September, as Apple Music subscribers will exit a trial period and have to decide if the service is worth paying for.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 72
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Another sign of Apple's impending doom. /s

    Interesting to see who is replacing him.
  • Reply 2 of 72

    Why is this a surprise? The odds are excellent that with Apple acquiring Beats there would be some overlap of staff/executives, and that some people would be leaving.

     

    Just another non-story people will try to spin as a negative to show there's internal strife at Apple and employees are unhappy.

  • Reply 3 of 72
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Why is this a surprise? The odds are excellent that with Apple acquiring Beats there would be some overlap of staff/executives, and that some people would be leaving.

    Just another non-story people will try to spin as a negative to show there's internal strife at Apple and employees are unhappy.

    9to5Mac previously reported issues with the Beats integration and people leaving. I guess not a surprise when integrating companies. My guess is Rogers knew he had no chance of being top dog like he was at Beats so he decided to move on.
  • Reply 4 of 72

    I still haven't signed up for Apple Music. Not because I don't think it'd be cool. But I feel like I need an opportunity in my life for some downtime when I can spend the three month trial really digging in and using it a lot. If I start the trial now, and I'm too busy, the trial will slip by and I won't have had a chance to really try it all out.

     

    My other concern is that I'm an iTunes Match subscriber. And I _LOVE_ iTunes Match. I'm a bit worried that signing up for Apple Music might pooch my iTunes Matched library. Have these issues been resolved yet?

  • Reply 5 of 72
    schlackschlack Posts: 719member
    Probably because Beats music was better than Apple Music. I've used both.

    Or could be because he sees the poor performance of Apple Music and doesn't want to take the blame for a product that was out of his control.

    Hope it's not the latter.
  • Reply 6 of 72

    I almost never listen to radio unless in a store and it's playing in the background. I don't have a car so again no radio. I have not owned a radio in at least 25 years. Streaming music does not appeal to me at all, I know I am a freak in this  regards but I rather make my own playlist. How do I hear about new artist? From friends, live performances, and even TV, show's like SNL has always been at the forefront of upcoming musicians. 

     

    I'm from a generation that prefers to have copies of their music in arm's reach to play when I like. I don't like subscribing to many things either. Again I'm not the target audience of Apple Music however I really like Match. 

  • Reply 7 of 72
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sinus tree View Post

     

    I almost never listen to radio unless in a store and it's playing in the background. I don't have a car so again no radio. I have not owned a radio in at least 25 years. Streaming music does not appeal to me at all, I know I am a freak in this  regards but I rather make my own playlist. How do I hear about new artist? From friends, live performances, and even TV, show's like SNL has always been at the forefront of upcoming musicians. 

     

    I'm from a generation that prefers to have copies of their music in arm's reach to play when I like. I don't like subscribing to many things either. Again I'm not the target audience of Apple Music however I really like Match. 




    Why do you waste your time posting comments, no one cares about your opinion. I'm not trying to troll you or make you feel bad, just offering some useless unwanted advice. Stop wasting your time with internet forums. 

  • Reply 8 of 72
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,007member
    As Apple Music Director, if he was responsible for signing off on many of the decisions of the application functionality and services structure (forcing iCloud Music Library for offline streaming of Apple Music, which in turn forces you to stream all of your owned purchases among other things), I'm very pleased he's gone.

    I've been relentless emailing Apple executives and senior iTunes support personne identifying a number of issues with the new service and app that imo would materially affect paid adoption of the new service.

    The most recent response I received a week ago seems to indicate that they now understand these issues and most if not all will be addressed soon.
  • Reply 9 of 72
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    thrang wrote: »
    As Apple Music Director, if he was responsible for signing off on many of the decisions of the application functionality and services structure (forcing iCloud Music Library for offline streaming of Apple Music, which in turn forces you to stream all of your owned purchases among other things), I'm very pleased he's gone.

    I've been relentless emailing Apple executives and senior iTunes support personne identifying a number of issues with the new service and app that imo would materially affect paid adoption of the new service.

    The most recent response I received a week ago seems to indicate that they now understand these issues and most if not all will be addressed soon.

    When it comes to Apple Music the buck stops with Eddy Cue. He was the one demoing it on stage at WWDC.
  • Reply 10 of 72
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,007member
    rogifan wrote: »
    When it comes to Apple Music the buck stops with Eddy Cue. He was the one demoing it on stage at WWDC.

    By the buck stops here way of thinking, I agree. Though I'm not sure the demo person defines anything remotely connected to responsibility

    However, Apple is so large, I would imagine the director of the service would have significant input and control, as how much time can Cue devote to the multitude of details of a product?

    Of course, he should, as should all of the executives - Jobs would spend incredible time being focused on some of the smallest details of products, holding or killing things if it wasn't just right. Some of the things wrong with Apple Music and infrastructure makes me think that they aren't eating their own dog food (from the perspective of the typical user) as often as they should.

    So, firmly in the realm of idle speculation.. Cue wasn't aware of these issues, and Rogers, as the project lead is now gone. Or Rogers is taking the heat for an internal fall out even if the final decisions weren't his alone.
  • Reply 11 of 72
    sinus tree wrote: »
    I almost never listen to radio unless in a store and it's playing in the background. I don't have a car so again no radio. I have not owned a radio in at least 25 years. Streaming music does not appeal to me at all, I know I am a freak in this  regards but I rather make my own playlist. How do I hear about new artist? From friends, live performances, and even TV, show's like SNL has always been at the forefront of upcoming musicians. 

    I'm from a generation that prefers to have copies of their music in arm's reach to play when I like. I don't like subscribing to many things either. Again I'm not the target audience of Apple Music however I really like Match. 

    I'm not even sure it's a generational thing. I'm not that old and I don't want music I don't own crapping up my personal library I've spent a decade building.
  • Reply 12 of 72
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by iLoveStuff View Post

     



    Why do you waste your time posting comments, no one cares about your opinion. I'm not trying to troll you or make you feel bad, just offering some useless unwanted advice. Stop wasting your time with internet forums. 


    Or yours.

  • Reply 13 of 72
    greg uvan wrote: »
    I still haven't signed up for Apple Music. Not because I don't think it'd be cool. But I feel like I need an opportunity in my life for some downtime when I can spend the three month trial really digging in and using it a lot. If I start the trial now, and I'm too busy, the trial will slip by and I won't have had a chance to really try it all out.

    My other concern is that I'm an iTunes Match subscriber. And I _LOVE_ iTunes Match. I'm a bit worried that signing up for Apple Music might pooch my iTunes Matched library. Have these issues been resolved yet?

    Issue resolved.
    In the meantime, if your music is that precious to you, why not make a backup of it on an external drive or two. Anything valuable needs to be backed up in case of disaster.
  • Reply 14 of 72
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    Probabily wants to be a CEO again.

     

    At Apple he's a fish in a massive ocean.




    At Apple Eddy Cue was above him.  There is no way he was going replace Eddy Cue. Eddy probably already has lieutenants in line to succeed him.

     

    He may have realized he was over his head.  After all, Beats did not exactly set the world on fire.  To allow Apple Music to succeed, he realized someone more talented than he would have to take over.

  • Reply 15 of 72



    Maybe he was simply homesick for England.

    Maybe he has wife and kids there who he did not want to uproot.

  • Reply 16 of 72

    I have a car, I listen to tons of music, and I don't expect bother with Apple Music either (or Spotify or any of those).

     

    Streaming is for people who don't know what they want in their music or where to find it, apart from which, I don't want to mess up my multi-thousand song library on iTunes Match either. I'll wait. A few years.

  • Reply 17 of 72
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jameskatt2 View Post



    In the meantime, if your music is that precious to you, why not make a backup of it on an external drive or two. Anything valuable needs to be backed up in case of disaster.

    In my case, it's all backed up, always.

     

    Just how many songs do you have?

  • Reply 18 of 72
    roakeroake Posts: 809member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post







    Wow, how welcoming and inclusive! And so open minded!

     

     

    I was being open minded and very nice.

     

    Why on earth would a dude who has ABSOLUTELY ZERO INTEREST IN STREAMING MUSIC post on a topic about streaming music?

     

    Do I waste my time posting on forums about Yoga or Vegan diets and say I have ZERO interest in them?  Hell no.  Because its a waste of time.  And because all that would do is infuriate Yoga/Vegan fans.  Something called trolling.

     

    So I'm simply telling the guy to exit this topic, a topic he has ZERO interest in.  And I did say please.




    As many have pointed out, you are an idiot.

  • Reply 19 of 72
    mr omr o Posts: 1,046member

    Frankly, the iTunes User Experience was a disaster way before Apple Music.

     

    I really wanted Apple Music to be a hard reset for iTunes, but it wasn't ... Perhaps there are too many egos involved in the creation of Apple Music?

  • Reply 20 of 72
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

    (Quote:Originally Posted by sinus tree View Post

    I almost never listen to radio etc...)


    Please make your way to the exit.  Thank you.


    Why?  It's a pretty useless forum if it's only for swooning for Apple and patting ourselves on the back for it...

    His opinion wasn't disparaging, simply contrary to yours...so, useful.

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