Former Apple Music exec moves to LVMH
Ian Rogers, the music executive at Apple who stunned the industry last week with news of his departure, has revealed his new job: chief digital officer at LVMH, whose brands include Louis Vuitton and Moët & Chandon.
Rogers, 43, was in charge of the radio portion of Apple’s new streaming service, Apple Music, which includes its online radio station, Beats 1. His departure was a surprise partly because the Apple position seemed to represent the high point of a career in the trenches of music technology.
It was the latest in a series of personnel moves between the luxury and technology industries, and it underscores the extent to which the two sectors are increasingly competing and collaborating.
In 2013, Apple hired Paul Deneve, CEO of Yves Saint Laurent, to become vice president of special projects, and later that year it stunned the fashion world by naming Angela Ahrendts, the chief executive of Burberry, its retail chief. In turn, in April LVMH appointed Hector Muelas, former creative director of worldwide marketing communications for Apple, as DKNY’s chief image officer.
Intel has signed a multiyear deal with Luxottica to team up on smart products, as well as with the Fossil Group and TAG Heuer, an LVMH brand.
Rogers was at Yahoo and the music marketing company Topspin before joining Beats, which Apple bought last year for $3 billion. While still in college in the 1990s, Rogers was hired to run the Beastie Boys’ website, and among his many tattoos is the logo of NeXT, the computer company that Steve Jobs started after leaving Apple in the 1980s.
Apple Music, which like Spotify and Rhapsody offers streaming music by subscription, arrived in late June and has had a mixed response. In early August, the company said that 11 million people had signed up for it during free trial periods, which last 90 days.
When asked why he was leaving Apple for a business unrelated to music, Rogers wrote in an e-mail: “I asked my wife the night of the Apple Music announcement: Was that the starting gun or the finish line for me in the digital music race? I decided I’m ready for a new challenge both professionally and personally. I have more to learn and contribute.”