Apple is gearing up to further its ambitions in the video content (movies and web series) industry. With regards to the same, a report from The Information suggests that Cupertino has hired Shiva Rajaraman to lead its video and music content efforts.
Citing two sources aware of the development, the report suggests that Rajaraman will report to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services. This is a significant development for Apple, who is currently trying to figure out their video and music content strategies — where the condition of the latter is better than the former. The company is also said to be debating the direction its other efforts such as search should take. But, the executive haven’t been able to reach a solution and the hiring of Rajaraman is expected to be the plausible solution.
With regards to the same, the report continues to add,
Executives have debated how to go forward in video. One idea that has been discussed is to bundle its music, news and book offerings with new video and cable services that could be activated via the iPhone and work on Internet-connected TVs.
As for his responsibilities at Apple, the report suggests that Rajaraman will work on improving the “look and feel” of Apple Music, where the company plans to host all its original video content. The Cupertino giant is also said to be mulling the addition of a new section to their music streaming app called TV and Movies. This falls in line with their strategy, previously followed for an exclusive album and music video releases. It has recently also announced original TV web series in the form of Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke.
Professional History
According to his LinkedIn profile, Rajaraman has held product management roles at giants, such as YouTube, Spotify, and even Twitter. Starting off, he was the lead product manager for YouTube’s watch and discovery efforts for a good four long years but he later made a switch to micro-blogging platform Twitter.
After working on the commerce offerings for just seven months, he moved back to Google and assigned to lead YouTube’s consumer product team. This was a more significant position than the previous one as the video streaming platform was still in its nascent stage.
It was, however, now clocking more than 3 billion views on the daily from 500+ million devices. Two years later, he was bumped up to now lead the viewer team, meaning he ran every team of the video streaming giant. He was also responsible for securing content partnerships with the likes of Disney and Time Warner.
Another two years passed, he decided it was time for a change of scenery and moved to Spotify. He was appointed as Vice President of Product and helped shape the end-to-end user experience for over two years. He was responsible for the apps, features, discovery, recommendations and everything related to the user experience. But, he has since been on a break to spend some time with family and personal projects.
I’ve been narrating his professional history to give you a glimpse into the experience amassed by Rajaraman over the last ten odd years. And this is probably one of the strongest reasons (especially YouTube) that have led Apple to tap his for building out its video content strategy from scratch — or maybe restructure the current one. After a hiatus, he is now ready to jump back into the technology space and write the next chapter of his professional life with Apple.
