Jimmy Iovine to step down as Apple Music chief in August, take on consulting role, report says

The music industry luminary, part of Apple since the Beats purchase in 2014, plans to give up day-to-day involvement but will stay with the company.

Jimmy Iovine, who turned 65 earlier this month, will reportedly give up his day-to-day involvement later in 2018 and step into a consulting role, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing "people familiar with his plans." Iovine is motivated, the report said, by the timing of the vesting of his Apple shares, and will step away in August.

Back in January, Iovine had denied multiple reports that he was planning to leave Apple.

Iovine, long a major figure in the music industry, cofounded Interscope Records in 1990 and presided over the conglomerate Interscope Geffen A&M while also dabbling in movie production. Along with Dr. Dre, Iovine cofounded Beats Electronics in 2008, helping to bring about a renaissance in the headphone business.

Ever since the sale of Beats to Apple for $3 billion in 2014, Iovine has worked for Apple and helped shepherd the launch of Apple Music. Others who joined Apple in that purchase, including Dr. Dre, Trent Reznor and former CEO Ian Rogers, have since stepped away.

Iovine's change in role, the Journal reported, has a chance to "raise questions about the lasting value of Apple's largest deal at a time when its acquisitions strategy is attracting new interest."

Apple executive Eddy Cue has Apple Music as part of his supervisory oversight.

33 Comments

rfrmac 90 comments · 17 Years

About 6 years ago

Good.

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

This is a guess based on his approaching retirement age. The “leaving” story was shot down in flames, so now we’ll try “stepping back”. If he says he’s not “stepping back” then we’ll give “janitorial role” a try.

StrangeDays 12959 comments · 8 Years

rfrmac said:

Good.

Why? What knowledge do you posses about his performance at Apple working for Cook? Is Cook unhappy with him? In what ways?

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

StrangeDays said:

rfrmac said:

Good.

Why? What knowledge do you posses about his performance at Apple working for Cook? Is Cook unhappy with him? In what ways?

For one thing, the changes to the Music app that he allegedly helped to spearhead have made the app damn near unusable. It’s been dumbed down so much it’s unbelievable.

mjtomlin 2690 comments · 20 Years

SpamSandwich said:

StrangeDays said:

rfrmac said:

Good.

Why? What knowledge do you posses about his performance at Apple working for Cook? Is Cook unhappy with him? In what ways?

For one thing, the changes to the Music app that he allegedly helped to spearhead have made the app damn near unusable. It’s been dumbed down so much it’s unbelievable.

First of all... "allegedly"

I'm pretty sure, Jimmy Iovine did not sit down and design the interface for the Music app. He probably has NOTHING to do with it. He's not a programmer or UX designer. He's a music executive and producer who knows more about the industry than just about anyone else on the planet. Apple wanted to get serious about pushing back into the music industry, the 3 billion they spent for Beats was worth it, just to get Jimmy on board (and to a lesser extent, Dr. Dre). Their involvement and influence in pop music and pop culture cannot be underestimated. Whether or not you like the headphones or their music, you cannot deny that they are both extremely smart and powerful industry titans.