Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Investment Partner,Angel

As CEO of Beats Music, Ian Rogers is charged with redefining the digital music experience for consumers and artists alike, a role he is uniquely qualified for.

Rogers has spent his entire career pioneering the intersection of music, artists, and the Internet. He possesses a deep knowledge of technology, combined with music industry savvy, a personal understanding of the music business from the artist's point of view, and a finely tuned ear for music.

Rogers has helped artists embrace technology since the early 90s, when after creating a fan site for the Beastie Boys as a personal project, he found himself recruited while still in college to teach the band the ways of the Internet. From brainstorming fan engagement campaigns, to posting news from the road during Beastie Boy tours, Rogers eventually became webmaster for BeastieBoys.com, and later president of new media for the band’s label, Grand Royale.

After stints as webmaster at Nullsoft, chief technology officer at rVision, and president and chief technology officer of Mediacode, Rogers entered the early subscription music service business as VP & GM of Yahoo! Music, a role he held for nearly five years.

In 2008, Rogers was named CEO of Topspin—the first artist services platform designed to connect artists and fans directly via the Internet and music services. During his tenure, Topspin powered fan engagement campaigns for such industry pioneers as Eminem, Paul McCartney, Trent Reznor, and many others. He also hosted the popular and highly informative Internet talk show This Week in Music, interviewing dozens of music artists and executives. Rogers remains Topspin’s executive chairman and is a member of the company’s board.

Since joining Beats Music in January, 2013, Rogers has successfully guided the company’s spin off as an independent company, helped secure $60 million in private funding, and closed critical marketing and distribution deals with launch partner AT&T… not to mention overseeing development of the service from idea to reality.

His track record for successfully joining product, promotion, and direct-to-consumer marketing sets a compelling stage for Beats Music within the burgeoning and competitive digital music space. And as a passionate lover of music as well as a champion for artist rights, Rogers is the perfect individual to guide the Beats Music vision into the future.