Beats Music’s Ian Rogers to helm iTunes Radio

Beats Music’s CEO Ian Rogers will now oversee Apple’s iTunes Radio.

The news was announced on Saturday when Apple revealed it had finalised its $3.2 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics. Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre have also joined Apple however to bridge an overlap in the companies’ human resources and finance sectors, an expected 200 jobs have been cut from Beats Electronics’ 700-strong team.

Rogers, who joined Beats in January last year, will keep iTunes’ free radio service and Beats’ $10-per-month streaming service separate for now. Rogers will report to Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services.

Rogers has a long-running history in executive positions within the music industry. Before Beats, Rogers was CEO and Founder of artist marketing platform Topspin Media and before that an exec at Yahoo Music until 2008.

Apple launched iTunes Radio in September last year, the free ad-supported service is currently only available in the US and Australia.

FUN FACT: Ian Rogers has a tattoo of the logo of Steve Jobs’ first computer company NEXT on his leg.