This past week’s Hot Pod spent a good chunk of time on Apple Music and its hypothesized relationship with podcasts, and part of that digging around involved a brief glance at the org chart, which features Oliver Schusser — an Apple veteran executive who has led the company’s international content initiatives (spanning iTunes, Apple Books, Apple Podcasts, and more) — at the helm of the music service.
Yesterday, Billboard’s Micah Singleton published an overview on Schusser, Apple Music’s past four years, and the look ahead. It’s mighty fine timing, at least for me, as I continue to read up as much as I can about the division. The chunk that stuck with me:
It’s a new era for Apple — one in which services will sell its hardware, not the other way around. And for his tenure to be successful, Apple Music will need to grow in markets where the iPhone isn’t dominant, in places where iTunes never found success and in countries where consumers aren’t used to paying for music. Apple Music is growing faster than Spotify, both domestically and globally, but its momentum has slowed somewhat, according to sources with knowledge of both companies. While Schusser insists he’s not consumed with boosting subscriber numbers (“We just want to be the best; that doesn’t have to be the biggest”), he can’t ignore the Swedish juggernaut’s willingness to put powerful algorithms behind every playlist to keep its users returning.
Thought it was a useful read. Check it out.