In a surprising move, Apple Music senior director Ian Rogers has left Apple — just two months after the new streaming service was launched.
Rogers was key in shaping Apple’s online radio strategy, leading to the launch of Beats 1. Prior to joining Apple in August 2014, he worked as CEO at Beats Music.
Photo: LinkedIn
It’s not known exactly why Rogers left Apple, or whose decision it was, but it is certainly unexpected. In a blog post published on his personal website at the time of the Apple Music launch, Rogers described how it was “hard not to feel like the last 20+ years was leading to this day.”
Rogers will be going to work for a company based in Europe in an “unrelated industry,” although his LinkedIn profile has yet to show his departure from Apple.
Reports about the success of Apple Music have so far been mixed. The service has received a drubbing from some influential tech reporters, while one report claimed that close to half of listeners have already stopped tuning in — despite Apple Music still being in its free trial period.
Apple, however, refuted those claims, saying, “79 percent of users who have signed up for Apple Music are still using the service.”
Source: Financial Times
Via: VentureBeat
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
5 responses to “Apple Music exec leaves unexpectedly”
Apple music is a flop
No streaming service is making any profit, they are all flops, so far. It’s still a very early method for music distribution. People are not “trained” to buy their music through a streaming service, yet. That will take a LONG time until most people will automatically sign on to a streaming service. It’s certainly the cheapest way to get access to music, other than Free.
Spotify, which has been around for a few years only has around 20 Million subscribers, so it will take a little time for Apple to catch up. Spotify launched in 2008, so it has taken them about 7 years to get 20 Million subscribers and they lost about $200 Million dollars last year.
Look at cable TV subscriptions. Do you know how many subscribers there are in the US for cable TV? Probably a lot less than you think. As of Dec. 2013, there were only about 54 Million cable TV subscribers. So, them having 11 Million subscribers isn’t that bad for only being around for a short period of time.
About 65 Million people (mostly between the ages 18 to 34) in the US listen to traditional radio.
Obviously, for streaming music, no one knows how many paid subscribers it’s going to take for them to see actual profits. We’ll see what the attrition rate is for the Free Trial which ends soon, and the real number of paid subscribers and then we have to see if it’s going to increase year to year.
I’m not saying to or not to buy the service, but to call it a flop at this stage is a little premature, but so far, no streaming service is making any money. I have reservations for human curated programming as that seems like a VERY expensive way to curate music. I don’t know if Apple should have hired all of these people to curate these radio stations. I just want access to all of the music that’s ever been officially released, so I can create my own library/playlists.
Apple Music…. subscription? Sorry not me.
Why is it a flop? What are people really looking for? I have access to more music than I can possibly consume in any genre. Beats1 has those moments that I feel like I am listening to CFNY. Music I would never hear on mainstream radio. (Oh…sure there are a lot of people who don’t remember CFNY. It was the best radio station in North America). The global aspect makes it cool in my book. I like the personalization because it helps me select music based on my mood. It’s not a flop at all in my book. Does it need some refinement? Yes, but flop? No.
Ian Rogers was long a prophet for artists owning their own data, including their customer data. Look at his videos and posts from when he was at Topspin. Apple co-opte Rogers, and parts of the Topspin platform, into an entity that defiantly does *not* let artists keep their own customer data – you have to go through Apple as a mediated platform, which is exactly what Rogers at Topspin spoke out against. This is a clear example of Apple pulling an “Embrace-Extend-Extinguish” on the artist-keeping-their-own-data that Topspin offered (and which has not kept up with innovations since Rogers left; just look at the albums and artists they cite in their examples). Perhaps Rogers realized how thoroughly he had sold out to exactly what he said artists should not, and quit. At least that’s what I’d like to think. Otherwise, Apple, having cannibalized parts of Topspin, simply spat him out after extinguishing him and making him a piece of their machine.