Jimmy Iovine is leaving his post at Apple Music in August of this year.
The former Interscope Records CEO and co-founder of Beats by Dre joined Apple back in 2014 when he sold the Beats company to the tech giant for a reported $3 billion. Billboard reported that his departure from the company coincides with his shares in Apple fully vesting. Apple did not comment on his sudden departure and Jimmy Iovine has been tight-lipped on the reports. His job title at the tech company is not really known, but he is widely credit for the huge success of Apple Music over the three years he’s been with the company.
Since taking on his role at Apple Music, the user subscription has surpassed 30 million since launching in 2015. A big part of the success of the service has to do with Jimmy Iovine developing original content and getting exclusive deals with some big-name artists like Drake and Chance The Rapper. Iovine’s ties to Apple dated back to 2003 when the tech company introduced the iPod and iTunes. He was a key proponent of both the device and the music download service.
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In 2008, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre launched their premium headphones Beats by Dre which quickly became a successful company despite its pricey headsets. In 2012, Beats bought music streaming service MOG which was struggling at the time and turned it into a subscription-based music streaming platform. Iovine and Dr. Dre then sold the entire Beats company to Apple in 2014 for a reported $3 billion.
Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre have been close friends from the NWA days and HBO chronicled their relationship in a four-part documentary last year, The Defiant Ones. The documentary showcased some never before scenes of the two working together from back in the 1990s and some never before heard stories of what they overcome together.
