Is Trent Reznor Out At Apple's Beats Music?
June 2, 2014
Trent Reznor, the chief creative officer at Beats Music, might not have a future at the company following Apple's acquisition of Beats Audio, according to somewhat conflicting reports.
On Saturday, USA Today said the singer-songerwriter has already left the company. Also exiting is Fredric Vinna, one of Beats’ principal technology executives, who has recently gone to Spotify.
On Monday, Billboard said not so fast. A spokesman for Reznor and for Beats say the USA Today story is inaccurate. “Though they’ve not specified which elements of the report are false, and which are indeed accurate.”
Billboard notes that Reznor has had a messy relationship with Apple:
Reznor has previously waged a war of words with Apple, blasting the tech giant in 2009 after the iTunes Store banned NIN’s The Downward Spiral app, Consequence of Sound notes. “You can buy ‘The Downward Fucking Spiral’ on iTunes,” he said, “but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it.” His tirade got considerable darker from that point on.The chief creative officer joined Beats Music in October 2012. On Wednesday, Apple announced it would be buying Beats Audio for $3 billion. Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join the company in executive roles. Cupertino expects the transaction to close in fiscal Q4. See also: In A Memo To Apple Employees, Tim Cook Touts A ‘New Chapter’ With Beats Purchase, MOG Is Dead, Long Live Apple's Beats Music, and After Beats Audio Purchase, Should Apple Buy Netflix? Photo: David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns via Getty Images
