Ian Rogers Leaving Apple Music for Unrelated Industry

Ian Rogers, current Apple executive and former CEO of Beats Music (before its acquisition and transition by Apple), is leaving the Cupertino, Ca.-based tech giant. The news was first reported by the Financial Times early this morning (Aug. 28). Apple confirmed the move to Billboard. The jump is a surprising transition for a lifelong fan and music technology innovator – Financial Times reports the exit “caught colleagues off guard.”

Rogers was previously the general manager of Yahoo! Music before being named CEO of Topspin, an artist-to-fan marketing and sales platform, which he oversaw the sale of that company’s core technology to Beats for integration into its still-in-development streaming service – now Apple Music.

According to Financial Times sources, Rogers will be taking a job in Europe in an unrelated industry. Rogers was key to the development of the popular Beats 1 radio, as well as drawing Beats 1’s leader Zane Lowe away from his position at the BBC (which caused a bit of a trickle-down effect).

Top Apple executive Eddy Cue told USA Today earlier this month that Apple Music had drawn 11 million users and that its was maintaining a 79 percent retention rate on those signups (that last number was released in response to a critical article from the The Verge on the service’s performance).

Rogers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.