While his alleged exit has yet to be confirmed by himself or anyone at Apple, sources tell Bloomberg that the Interscope co-founder’s departure is timed with him getting his final paycheck for the Beats Entertainment deal.
Iovine & Dr. Dre teamed with Apple after the technology giant purchased the pair’s Beats Electronics & Beats Music brand for $3 billion in 2014.
Since then, Iovine has helped steer Apple Music, the company’s subscription-based streaming service that Apple Reports has more than 30 million paying subscribers worldwide.
When asked in a September interview with Billboard what he wants to do after Apple Music, Iovine replied: “I’m 64 years old. I have no idea. 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.”
In the same interview, he shot down the idea of ever returning to the record business.
“Not a chance. I can help from here. I can’t help from there,” he explained. “Let them make the music exciting and interesting. We will try to do everything that we can to create content around it, and make the delivery of it as exciting as possible.”
Neither Iovine, nor Apple, have yet to publicly comment on the reports.
