Gawker: valleywag, ian rogers

The Rebel Yell of the Twitterati

Ryan Tate — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:05:08 EDT

David Simon told television viewers to go screw themselves; Jane Fonda established a rallying point for her fellow travelers and Choire Sicha and David Carr watched a bust go down. The Twitterati celebrated troublemakers.

The New York Times' David Carr and The Awl's Choire Sicha went to lunch. Inevitably, this involved illicit substances.

Time's Joel Stein found something even better than Facebook.

Gawker contributor Melissa Gira Grant discovered herself at the unhappy intersection of viral marketing and an ex.

Financial writer Lyneka Little felt self-consciously stalky.

Internet music entrepreneur Ian Rogers likes it when the creator of The Wire gets a little cranky.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

MySpace music venture lonely at the top

Owen Thomas — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:20:00 EDT

MySpace Music, the joint venture between the social network and three big record-label groups, is struggling to find a CEO, according to The Deal. There's a long list of prospects who have turned the News Corp.-owned social network down: Ian Rogers, the former head of Yahoo Music; Jim Bankoff, formerly of AOL; Eric Garland, the highly quotable head of file-sharing research firm BigChampagne; and former Launch CEO Dave Goldberg, who now works at Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence and is married to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, which makes the L.A. job geographically undesirable. But what's most amusing about MySpace's failed CEO search is the excuse MySpace is now giving for putting off a hire: The team is so close to delivering a product that hiring a boss now would just screw things up. Makes sense — but it raises the question, why hire a CEO at all?

Departing Yahoo music chief gave Scott Moore two days' notice

Nicholas Carlson — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Departing Yahoo music chief Ian Rogers wasn't "reorganized out" of the company, a source tells us. "The reorg was caused by his departure with two days' notice." Rogers left for all the obvious reasons: to escape both Microsoft and — like others before him — Yahoo Media czar Scott Moore's high-pressure management style. "He was tied of swimming upstream," our source says. "But he was careful to make nice with Scott before he left as to not burn the bridge."

Scott Moore shakes up Yahoo Media Group, music chief leaves

Owen Thomas — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Scott Moore, the former Microsoftie now running Yahoo's media businesses, has reorganized his group, which runs Yahoo's original-content websites. Out the door: Ian Rogers, the outspoken head of Yahoo Music, who had loudly criticized the music industry for insisting on copy protection. Rogers says on his blog that he's joining Topspin Media, a music startup, as CEO. Rogers also oversaw some of Yahoo's video efforts, which Moore now says he'll run personally. The reorg comes in advance of two days of all-hands meetings in Sunnyvale and Santa Monica in two weeks. Moore's memo:

And now for the Kremlinology: Karin Gilford, head of Yahoo Entertainment, seems like the big winner here. Amy Iorio, the widely disliked executive whose team launched women's site Shine, loses out. Moore's mostly winnowing the number of direct reports he has — which should give him more time to call old pals in Redmond. And Rogers? Got out while the getting was good.

AP breaks four-month-old story on Yahoo Music

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:03:06 EST

Record company sources told the AP Yahoo wants to offer DRM-free MP3s for sale or for free via an ad-supported service. Thank you, in-the-know record executives! Ian Rogers, the general manager of Yahoo Music, publicly said much the same thing back in October.

This news only dwindles even further the value of Yahoo's subscription music service, which its reportedly been trying to offload for around $90 million. Why won't that happen? The most likely buyer, Napster, doesn't have even that much cash lying around. RealNetworks could buy it, but they're more focused on their booming mobile business right now. Or at least they should be.

Anyone want to buy a music subscription service? Anyone? Anyone?

Tim Faulkner — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:00:55 EST

According to Silicon Alley Insider, Yahoo may be looking to sell its music subscription service. The move makes sense: Ian Rogers, the general manager of Yahoo Music, declared in October that he was done inconveniencing users with the digital restrictions labels required for online music subscriptions. Subscriptions simply haven't materialized as the profitable business model for artists, labels, and services alike that many had imagined. Freeing itself of the failed model will allow Yahoo to focus on free, ad-supported music. The only problem now is dumping the old service.

The only serious potential buyers are RealNetworks, though they may have fallen out of buyout talks already, and Napster, which continues to perform poorly and just recently began to shift its strategy away from subscriptions, too. Getting out of the subscription business is probably a necessary move for Yahoo, but the company may just have to settle for mothballing the operation. Good riddance.

Yahoo Music to do away with DRM

Mary Jane Irwin — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:49:00 EDT

Ian Rogers, general manager of Yahoo Music, told music execs it's time to quit whining, grow up, and get rid of digital rights management — the copy-protection software that's the bane of music listeners everywhere. In a deliciously ranty presentation, Rogers explains how record labels forced Yahoo Music to build an annoying music software client to ensure the industry stayed in control of the music. Yahoo, says Rogers, won't put up with DRM's inconvenience anymore. Rogers says he'd rather quit the digital-music business than keep frustrating his users. "I personally don't have any more time to give and can't bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value." Ah, there's the keyword: "value." Is this really a high-minded protest — or an artful negotiating tactic to counter labels' demands to boost prices on DRM-free music?