Jimmy Iovine set to depart Apple Music?

The head – and public face – of Apple Music Jimmy Iovine may be leaving the company in August, according to a report in Hits Daily Double.

The move, a source told the magazine, will coincide with his receiving the final payout of the US$3 billion sale in May 2014 of Iovine and Dr Dre’s headphone manufacturer Beats Electronics.

Apple was keen to get Iovine involved in its new streaming service because of his contacts in the music industry as a highly respected producer and record label executive.

He had long before that developed a strong relationship with Apple founder Steve Jobs. Back in 2003 he had pitched an idea of a streaming service, and was an early champion of the iPod and iTunes.

Jimmy Iovine started out in the early ‘70s as a New York-based producer and engineer, working on classics as Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, John Lennon’s Walls And Bridges, Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, Patti Smith’s Easter, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ Damn The Torpedoes, U2’s Rattle and Hum, Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna, Dire Straits’ Making Movies, Simple Minds’ Once Upon A Time and The Pretenders’ Get Close.

In 1990, he co-founded Interscope Records (signing Tupac Shakur and funding Death Row Records) and was later Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M after a merger in 1999, during which he inked Eminem and Lady Gaga.

In 2006 he and Dre set up Beats, which launched a streaming service, MOG that has since been axed.

At Apple Music Iovine has made a startling climb: within three years of launch, it had 30 million subscribers.

In comparison market leader Spotify, which turns 10 this October, hit the 70 million subscriber mark last Thursday.

It is said that some of his ambitions for Apple Music and his highly public comments clashed with other Apple executives who prefer to keep their cards close to their chests.

Some of the original content projects he introduced to draw more subscribers, like Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke, have not been as successful as anticipated.

In interviews Iovine gave last year, he indicated there was a huge potential for growth for Apple Music and for the streaming sphere.

He long advocated that freemiums should disappear from streaming services, despite acknowledging that Apple Music would have 400 million users if it had a free tier.

In one he stated, “A music service needs to be more than a bunch of songs and a few playlists.

“I’m trying to help Apple Music be an overall movement in popular culture, everything from unsigned bands to video.

“We have a lot of plans.”

Last August, Goldman Sachs predicted that music streaming would reach $28 billion by 2030 and propel the music business to $41 billion.

Iovine was one of those who remained unimpressed with the estimate.

He told Billboard a month later, “I’m 64 years old. I have no idea [what I’m doing next].

“There’s just a problem here that needs some sort of solution, and I want to contribute to it.

“Goldman Sachs may think it’s solved, but I don’t. We’re not even close.”

With the reputation he enjoys in both the music and tech industries, and with the pay-out he’ll receive, his next venture could be in either or both, if he is indeed planning to depart Apple.

Neither Iovine nor Apple have commented on the Hits Daily Double story.