In fairness, Reznor has come a long way since the 1990s. As well as being the chief creative officer at Beats, he has built his name in movie scores. Alongside the English composer Atticus Ross, he won an Academy Award in 2010 for the score of Social Network, the David Fincher-directed film about Facebook and its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The pair also scored Fincher’s Gone Girl and Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

It’s not the first time a device maker has given a celebrity a role in the development of its products—BlackBerry made Alicia Keys its “creative director,” and Lenovo had a weird relationship with Ashton Kutcher last year. But this is Apple, which is notoriously obsessed with the quality of its products and the user experience. And the Times’ report suggests Reznor’s role is much more hands-on, and no marketing stunt. (Apple declined to comment to Quartz or clarify his role.)

Apple’s streaming service is going to cost $10 a month, the Times says, and won’t include a free option, which is consistent with what Quartz has heard in recent weeks.  This will please major record labels, who want to clamp down on free music, and means Apple won’t be undercutting existing services such as Spotify in paid-for streaming.

Apple already has on file millions of credit cards for the customers who pay for music and movie downloads from iTunes. If it can convert even a small fraction of those into streaming subscribers, it could change the industry landscape irrevocably. Now it’s up to Reznor to make that happen.

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