Former Spotify Executive Hired to Lead Apple Music's Label Relations

[MacRumors]

Apple has hired a former Spotify executive to head up its Apple Music label relations team, according to Business Insider.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed that former Spotify VP of content Steve Savoca has been recruited to oversee the music streaming service's global label relations, which work out of New York.

Savoca is tasked with building relationships with smaller, independent labels, with a focus on the international scene, according to the report.

Savoca is said to have haven been one of Spotify's first U.S. employees and worked for the Swedish streaming company for five years. Prior to that, he held senior digital and marketing roles roles at Domino Records, Zomba Label Group, and London-Sire.

Savoca is a musician himself, and played drums with a band called the Werefrogs during the 1990s, according to Billboard. He serves on the board of directors of the Music Business Association (formerly NARM) and previously sat on the board at Merlin.

In December 2016, Apple's Eddy Cue revealed that Apple Music has over 20 million paid subscribers. In October, Spotify said it had 40 million subscribers. Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine recently spoke of the company's desire to make Apple Music more than just a music streaming service, with "an entire pop cultural experience" planned that takes in original content including TV and audio.

Article Link: Former Spotify Executive Hired to Lead Apple Music's Label Relations

 

[ferdinandcc]

The Werefrogs is such a good band name.

 

[flyinmac]

Finally, somebody with experience.

Hopefully he'll help Apple understand what the consumers want.

Random guessing hasn't worked too well.

 

[chr1s60]

This is a good step. Now if they could redesign the app to not use the red font and the unnecessarily large font for the header of every page.

 

[djcerla]

Hopefully he'll help Apple understand what the consumers want.

Random guessing hasn't worked too well.

You don't make $7.1B in 3 months by "random guessing" your services.

 

[iCloudStrife]

You don't make $7.1B in 3 months by "random guessing" your services.

No. You do it by being the biggest company in the world and entering into a new domain with every bit of weight your multibillion-dollar corpus can offer.

 

[Kebabselector]

I tried the service, but have now cancelled - a combination of poor 3/4g & poor wifi in the office hasn't helped matters. I'll stick to buying music for a while.

 

[djcerla]

No. You do it by being the biggest company in the world and entering into a new domain with every bit of weight your multibillion-dollar corpus can offer.

Yeah, too bad that didn't work exactly well for Google's, Microsoft's and Amazon's music subscription services. Nowhere close to Apple's >20M subscribers.

Maybe because they're not technically "the biggest company in the world" by your logic.

 

[Quu]

Looks like Putin.

 

[flyinmac]

Looks like Putin.

World leaders need extra money too. Don't let him find out that you cracked his secret identity. It'll cost him 10 seconds of his hourly rate to keep the secret.

 

[J.Dillinger]

I dropped Apple Music in favor of Spotify last month. I really like Spotify's various playlists and their recommendations. The UI can use some improvement but I still like it better than Apple's (they display the album's year!)

 

[nburwell]

I dropped Apple Music in favor of Spotify last month. I really like Spotify's various playlists and their recommendations. The UI can use some improvement but I still like it better than Apple's (they display the album's year!)

My fiancée and I went on the Spotify family plan about 4 months ago. While Apple Music wasn't bad when I had it, I really enjoy the robust playlists that Spotify offers (also the user curated playlists are great). I agree their UI could use some updating, but until I see or hear Apple Music improve, I will stick with Spotify for the time being.

 

[Analog Kid]

Looks like Putin.

Hey, now we know what he was talking to Trump about-- hair loss medications...

 

[KazKam]

You don't make $7.1B in 3 months by "random guessing" your services.

You're right. You make 7.1billion dollars in three months by spamming unsolicited ads in front of 500 million users and making listening to the music they already own a pain in the a**.

 

[Jakexb]

Finally, somebody with experience.

Hopefully he'll help Apple understand what the consumers want.

Random guessing hasn't worked too well.

Can't tell if that's sarcasm.
20 Million Subscribers. Already half of Spotify (that has been around for 10 years).

 

[princessgleek]

The biggest indie label not streaming anywhere is Drag City, let's see if get's them on board

 

[BigHam]

Surprised he didn't go to Tesla

 

[Apple 26.2]

Another Spotify user here... Apple has to not only match their offering and functionality, but better it in order to get me to switch.

 

[Shirasaki]

Finally, somebody with experience.

Hopefully he'll help Apple understand what the consumers want.

Random guessing hasn't worked too well.

I guess "Label Relation" is not related to music app development or design. Apple just want to gather more labels, especially indie labels under its huge empire.

 

[righteye]

I gave up with Apple Music and almost given up iTines as well I'm astonished there is no CD quality and above option. I use iTunes as a player for HiRes music bought elsewhere but i purchase very little now from the store.

 

[Flow39]

I tried Apple Music for a full year, and while I did find it to be pretty good, I'd rather own my music. I spent almost $200 on streaming services (GPM/AM/Spotify) and I found a bunch of music I liked but then I cancelled and lost it, making me rebuy the music.

Personally I'd rather just pay for my music as I want it rather than have an entire catalog that I can download and listen to as much as I want but then have it completely removed once I decide to cancel service.

 

[MH01]

Yeah, too bad that didn't work exactly well for Google's, Microsoft's and Amazon's music subscription services. Nowhere close to Apple's >20M subscribers.

Maybe because they're not technically "the biggest company in the world" by your logic.

Nope , they others you mentioned did not spam thier users on a daily basis to try the service

Apple also has a very high software upgrade rate, see first sentence .

Though try to be rationale , google Microsoft and amazon in no way committed to a music service like apple did. It's like saying Microsoft was competing with the Apple Watch with the Microsoft band....no no no ...