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Spotify Nabs Apple Music’s Hip-Hop Programming Head Carl Chery

Spotify Nabs Apple Music’s Hip-Hop Programming Head Carl Chery

There’s a lot of staff movement over at Apple Music. Apple Music leadership appears to be in the middle of a shakeup, with Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine withdrawing to a consulting role and Oliver Schusser taking the reins — though not from Iovine, even if his role has never been firmly defined for the public.

Now comes word that Apple Music’s hip-hop programming head Carl Chery is leaving for rival Spotify. While at Apple Music Chery beefed up the music streaming services hip hop offerings and was responsible for securing two Apple exclusive releases from Chance The Rapper, including the Grammy Award-winning “Coloring Book.”

“‘Coloring Book’ is now available elsewhere, but for two weeks could only be streamed through Apple Music. Chance would later reveal that he was given $500,000 and a commercial in exchange for the ‘Coloring Book’ deal,” Apple Insider reported.

Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash

Chery also created popular playlists and he played a key early in breaking artists like Cardi B, Bryson Tiller, Post Malone, and Khalid.

Chery is a former music journalist who has written for SOHH.com, XXL, and BET. He joined Apple in 2014 as part of the company’s Beats By Dre/Beats Music acquisition.

Apple Music recently passed 40 million paid subscribers. “As of January, Spotify claimed 70 million paying subscribers worldwide. The Swedish company went public on April 3 and its market cap is currently valued at $25.5 billion,” Variety reported.

Not only has Spotify lured away talent from Apple, in an effort “to retain its dominance over Apple Music, Spotify is preparing to announce a major update to its mobile app at a press event next week, according to The Verge. It’s unclear what changes the company might be making, but rumors have hinted at a better experience for free listeners and/or the company’s planned voice control features,” Complex reported.

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