Ian Rogers, the man in charge of the development of Apple’s highly-acclaimed Beats 1 radio station, is leaving the company.
The Financial Times says Rogers is leaving Cupertino to join a European company unrelated to the music industry.
Apple has since confirmed the departure.
Rogers was a Beats employee who ran the Beats Music streaming service before the takeover.
He was retained by Apple to help lead the transition into Apple Music, which launched at the end of June.
According to the FT report, Rogers’ departure has taken his Apple colleagues by surprise.
It’s unclear who’ll taker the reigns at the station in Rogers’ stead, but with the development stage of the project now complete, more responsibility will likely fall on Lowe’s shoulders.
Apple Music has gotten off to a mixed start, with the company boasting of up 11m users for its three-month free trial.
The acid test will come at the end of September when it asks folks to start handing over £9.99 a month for the Spotify rival.
OPINION: Why I won’t be sticking with Apple Music
The launch has not been without incident, with the iCloud Music Library feature wreaking havoc with the personal iTunes libraries of some Apple Music customers.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
