Luxury giant LVMH names former Apple Music exec Ian Rogers its Chief Digital Officer

Former Apple Music exec Ian Rogers may be out at Apple, but he’s in at French luxury giant LVMH, the company has confirmed to VentureBeat.

Rogers will be joining LVMH as its new chief digital officer, effective as of October.

News of his unexpected exit from Apple broke at the end of last week, barely two months after the company launched its Beats 1 radio service. At the time, all we knew was that he was going to a European firm in an unrelated industry.

Rogers had been instrumental in crafting Apple’s online radio strategy, joining the company last year when it acquired Beats in a $3 billion deal.

In a prepared statement, Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH, said:

I am happy to welcome Ian into our Group to strengthen our digital ecosystem. He will build on the foundations laid by Thomas Romieu, take the Houses to the next level and explore new opportunities for the Group in the digital sphere. Ian will bring his extensive experience in high-end digital ventures and his innovation-driven spirit to develop LVMH leadership in the digital luxury field.

Just because Rogers is now out of the picture at Apple doesn’t mean things have been going any smoother for its music streaming service of late.

In any case, this concludes that little side trip.

Here’s some more background on Rogers from the release:

A graduate in computer science from Indiana University, Ian Rogers started his career in 1993 as webmaster successively for the Beastie Boys and at Nullsoft. In 2001 he founded Mediacode which was later taken over by Yahoo, where he became VP and General Manager, Music. In 2008, he became CEO of Topspin Media. In 2013 he joined Beats Music as CEO. Last year he joined the iTunes team at Apple as Senior Director pursuant to their acquisition of Beats Music. Ian contributed to the recent launch of Apple Music including Beats1, their digital streaming channel.