George Ergatoudis started working at Radio 1 in 1997 as a producer
BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra's head of music has announced he's leaving the station to take up a new job at Spotify.
George Ergatoudis will leave the BBC in March after a decade in the job.
"It's been a privilege to have played a key part in the journey of the world's greatest music radio station over the last 10 years.
"In that time, Radio 1 has successfully moved into a new era of visual and shareable content, helping to drive new young audiences to the BBC," he said.
"Now I'm ready for the next chapter in my career as I take on responsibility for leading Spotify's in-house music curation strategy and content programming for the UK. I can't wait to get started."
Mumford & Sons are among the acts George Ergatoudis has championed during his time at the station
In the newly created role, he will be responsible for leading Spotify's in-house music curation strategy and content programming team for the UK.
Back in June, the streaming service launched Discover Weekly - a two-hour playlist of recommendations based on what you listen to on the site.
It follows the launch of Apple Music back in June, which included its own curation service called Discover, and Facebook's Music Stories as well as YouTube Music and Google's Play Music in America.
The BBC Music app, external also arrives next year, which will concentrate on playlists rather than streaming.
Before being head of music, George Ergatoudis managed BBC Radio 1Xtra's music policy and championed acts like Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Ms Dynamite.
At Radio 1 he's backed the likes of Mumford & Sons, Tinie Tempah and Disclosure.
In 2011 he was listed as number seven in The Guardian's Music Power 100 list and was named in the 2015 Sunday Times-Debretts list of the 500 most influential people in the UK.
Controller of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Ben Cooper has been in his job since 2011
Controller of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Ben Cooper said: "Over the past decade, George has been a key part of Radio 1's discovery of new music for young audiences and has continued to support British artists, giving them a platform for success.
"He has built a strong team at Radio 1 & 1Xtra with excellent contacts across the industry.
"We would like to thank him for all his hard work and wish him all the very best for the future."
Ben Cooper played down the impact of streaming on the radio industry at a talk in September.
He told an audience at the Radio Festival, external: "Our job is to carry on creating the next generation of people for the industry, and to use the licence fee money as seed capital to invest in great presenters, invest in great producers and to invest in innovation in how you create content around bands and artists, and how you listen to a radio station.
"Whether that is live listening, or on-demand listening, or the streaming of your musical choices.
"Radio 1 is vital to the cultural landscape of the UK when it comes to British music and that's what I want it to carry on doing in the future."
George Ergatoudis isn't the first member of Radio 1 to leave the station to join a music streaming company.
Zane Lowe joined Apple's radio station Beats 1 earlier this year.
For more stories like this one you can now download the BBC Newsbeat app straight to your device. For iPhone go here, external. For Android go here, external.
