Precious little information about the upcoming Beats Music streaming service is seeping out from behind the firewall, except that it will use acquired MOG assets, and might be called Daisy. Both those bits are interesting, but potentially not as intriguing as CEO Ian Rogers.
Rogers was head of Yahoo!’s music efforts in a previous corporate incarnation, before heeding the call of the startup and joining Topspin, a label- and artist-services company. He remains on the Topspin board while taking the reins at Beats Music.
If one can divine the character of a yet-to-launch service by the personality of its leader, Rogers’ blog (Fistfulayen) is a must-read. He doesn’t post often, but the updates demonstrate a sharp blend of social network critiques, family business, youthful reminiscences, and (rarely) a Beats Music hint.
Today Rogers let fly an excoriating complaint of music services that auto-share their users’ every listen to Facebook. (His gripe is understandable, though it should be pointed out that most streaming services ask for an opt-in to auto-sharing, albeit one that is embedded in the Facebook registration.) Rogers provides instructions for disconnecting those auto-shares in Pandora, Spotify, Songza, Rdio, and Rhapsody — plus how to stop Facebook from displaying music-sharing on the receiving end. The man is on a mission.
The Beats Music hint? Here it is: “I promise you Beats Music will not do the ‘barf everything you play on Facebook’ bullshit.” If only Rogers were more plainspoken, we’d have a better understanding of how he feels. But seriously, auto-sharing should be a clear, obvious, separate and explained opt-in step in any platform’s registration process. For the sake of social sanity, we cast our vote with Ian Rogers. Now, let’s have a look at that Beats Music service.
[First spotted on Hypebot]