Apple Music lead takes on Apple TV+ responsibility amidst division’s restructuring

Apple Music and Beats VP, Oliver Schusser has taken on the responsibility of heading Apple TV+ as well.

Recently, Apple’s VP of Services, Peter Stern announced his departure from the company at the end of January after six years under SVP Eddy Cue’s leadership. Stern was one of Apple’s top strategy executives who helped in building subscription services like TV+, News+, Fitness+, iCloud, Apple One, and others. He was also behind the expansion of the Sports catalog for TV+.

Stern is departing at a time when the services division is undergoing major restructuring. It was reported that the company was going to split Stern’s responsibilities into three separate divisions and one of the new executives was expected to be Schusser, along with two others.

Apple Services’ restructuring kicks off with Oliver Schusser taking on Apple TV+

Prior to joining Apple in 2004 as VP of iTunes International, Schusser was VP of marketing at Napster and a former Bertelsmann executive. In 2018, he took on the role of VP of Apple Music and International Content and became head of Beats in 2020.

He is widely credited with growing Apple Music in new directions and developing an international presence and improving structure as well as neutralizing different factions inside Apple.

Schusser spent more than a decade building iTunes from the ground-up internationally, according to a Billboard article.

In addition to Schusser, the VP of services product and design Robert Kondrk, and the VP of corporate development, Adrian Perica are expected to take charge of the two other new services divisions. Insider believes that the restructuring will prove to be good for the streamer.

The shift gives Apple fresh management thinking atop its streamer, where creative development and production are led by co-heads of Worldwide Video, Jamie Erlicht and Zack van Amburg. The two programmers have spent billions of dollars inking deals with Hollywood’s biggest names and succeeded in winning Apple the best picture Oscar for “CODA,” a Erst for a streaming service. In Apple TV+’s short history — it launched in 2019 — the two have also created a handful of buzzy shows, from “The Morning Show” to “Ted Lasso” and most recently “Severance.”