August 30, 2015 Ian Rogers Beats It
The news of Ian Rogers’ departure from Beats 1 flooded the Internet on Friday August 28, 2015. After Financial Times broke the news of Rogers parting from Apple. This came as a surprise to many music industry insiders. Rogers has been said to be detrimental to the development and the future success of Beats 1. Rogers position was senior director of Apple music, he lead the development of Beats 1. His career as a digital music executive has lead him to work with the likes of the Beastie Boys, Yahoo Music, and his own platform, Topspin. Rogers was the Senior Director at Apple Music, which was his dream job, he said, “Seeing Apple Music on stage at WWDC this month…it was hard not to feel like the last 20+ years was leading to this day.” This sudden leave almost seems shocking with all that he has accomplished with Beats 1.
It has been reported that Rogers is moving to Europe to work for a company outside of the music industry. On Friday Rogers was playing coy when he tweeted the word “Europe”, a picture of the band Europe, and ironically the band’s iTunes page. Rogers and Apple have declined requests for comments.
An analyst from Midia Research, Mark Mulligan, told Billboard, “While Ian will clearly be missed, the organizational structure of Apple Music probably doesn’t need a CEO-level person. It’s just one service within Apple’s large portfolio of services. In a smaller organization Ian’s departure would be felt much more than it will in Apple, where no person is bigger than the project.”
Maybe Rogers realized that Apple and other streaming models are unsustainable and have no true way to make a profit in the current business model that many streaming services practice. Ian Rogers is a smart guy; maybe this is the best thing for him to just walk away, before things go sour. Rogers is very passionate and knows the music industry very well, so for him to walk away from his dream job making a shit ton of money to go to a non-music job it has to throw a red flag. I have personally met him at different conferences you can tell he has a passion for the music industry. I don’t think it’s possible for him to get a better gig than he has now. Who knows, maybe it is something personal, but I doubt it. Majority of the time when things are personal, they generally leak out days after. Whatever the case is, I wish Ian the best in his new position.
Contact Information
email: jason@jasonkventura.com
website: http://www.jasonkventura.com
Reader Comments