Music industry titan and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine is leaving Apple later this year.
Iovine has made the decision to leave Apple in August, Billboard is reporting, citing sources, who added that the timing coincides with when Iovine’s Apple shares fully vest following the tech giant’s $3 billion Beats buy in 2014. Neither Apple nor Iovine have commented publicly on the news.
Jimmy Iovine is one of the most prominent music industry executives. He started his career as a producer for a variety of major bands and artists, including Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Nicks. He went on to run major music labels, including Interscope records. He co-founded Beats, a company that made high-end headph0nes, with Dr. Dre.
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In addition to headphones, Beats had developed a music-streaming service that caught the eye of Apple. In 2014, Beats agreed to be acquired by Apple for $3 billion. As part of the deal, Iovine stayed on with Apple and helped the company launch its streaming-music service Apple Music based on the technology Beats had already developed.
Since then, Iovine has been the central figure in Apple Music’s development and has spoken frequently at Apple press events to discuss new features. He’s also presided over substantial growth for Apple Music, which now counts more than 30 million subscribers since its release in June 2015.
Apple did not immediately respond to a Coins2Day request for comment on Iovine’s apparent departure.
