Jimmy Iovine
We created Apple Music to make finding the right music easier for everyone - men and women, young and old.
The world is evolving.
I love doing third albums. A group makes its first album, and then the record company rushes them into the studio to make their second album. After that, they go, 'Whoa, wait a second.' They get a little more confident. They step back and say, 'Okay, now we're gonna do it.'
Every artist and every song has an idea, and the producer's job is to capture it.
Apple Music is about getting things early and pushing them out.
Apple Music is a big idea, and it's going to take some time to fulfill its overall dream.
Ground zero for me is audio.
I'm happy with studio infiltration, but I'm thrilled when I see 12- to 20-year olds walking down the street with Beats and not two-dollar earbuds.
That's how I grew up - it wasn't cool to not have a good system.
My life changed because Bruce Springsteen got on a mic in front of me.
I always say, 'I love chocolate, but I'm not Willy Wonka.'
What we feel, especially in the streaming area, especially in the services area, is that you need curation.
I'm really interested in the record industry and the artists and the problems they're having.
Most technology companies are culturally inept. They're never going to get curation right.
I always try to go where the excitement is, where the best music is. I don't care what kind of music it is. I go with the best artist we can find.
I don't know why records are treated different than books. I don't know why an Eminem record is different than a Stephen King movie.
There's just no way to stop a movement in popular culture. It's going to happen, with or without you. There's absolutely no way to stop that train.
There are thousands of Eminems. Just listen to a song. There are thousands of them. It's just that he had the talent. It's like someone with a talent to hit a baseball. He had the talent to write lyrics.
I always wanted to be where the cool was because I didn't think I was cool. But music was cool.
I was very insecure. I figured the only thing I can do is just work harder than everybody else and be useful. So I would anticipate when a client would need a cup of tea. I would anticipate when they wanted to rewind the tape. I would anticipate when they were going to do a vocal.
I didn't have any sophistication. I didn't really have any great taste or anything like that. I was just a kid from Brooklyn. But what I learnt is the why, the how. The work ethic.
Digital sound is damaging music; it's damaging the artists. It's so degrading.
Labels need to work with artists to help them achieve their best work, not to jam records out that are half-baked or three-quarters baked.
Bob Dylan enabled rock & roll to grow up and survive. He injected the power of language and ideas into the music.
Bruce Springsteen gave people faith in rock & roll and in themselves again.
Dylan captured what was on a million minds and turned it into poetry. With 'Blowin' in the Wind' or 'The Times They Are A-Changin',' he set a whole new standard.
Interscope is run more like a rock band than a record company. It's run in a very spontaneous, heartfelt way.
The good news is in the record business, they only count your successes.
Those folks at Death Row were the Rolling Stones of their time.
Nobody wanted to be in business with Death Row because, unfortunately, they felt there was an element there that could be dangerous. But I just knew they had great music and that they were a bunch of guys who wanted to make it out of the ghetto. That's something I can understand.
I'm most proud that I thought of Beats at 55.
I have a gift: I'm very lucky to be able to spot when a person is special.
I knew in my heart that I wasn't cool, but I figured I could at least be cool by association.
The great artists of music have always innovated and boldly changed the game, but the industry itself has not.
Too often, the music business allowed third-party companies to innovate for us - and that simply does not work anymore.
Apple was selling $400 iPods with $1 earbuds. They're making a beautiful white object with all the music in the world in it... I'm going to make a beautiful black object that will play it back.
I follow cool. When I went up to see Steve Jobs, I said, 'The party's at this guy's house.'
Everything Dre and I do is completely on feel. We don't prepare for anything... we only work on instinct.
I'm interested in listening to the people who walk in the door. If your ego and your accomplishments stop you from listening, then they've taught you nothing.
There are geniuses, savants; I'm not one of them. I work hard, I see where popular culture's going to move, but I've gotta keep having information pumped into me. I look under every rock.
Just because you did something once doesn't mean anything. You have to be willing in your heart to begin again every day. The minute I'm not willing to do that, I will retire.
If you're great, that means you're freaked out that the next day you're not going to be great. You keep trying.
I don't have a rear-view mirror.
Genres are just names.
Algorithms are great, but they're very limited in what they can do as far as playing songs and playing a mood.
Just because you go to Burning Man doesn't make you Hunter Thompson.
The media people need to have real tech people, and the tech people need media people. Otherwise, you have the 'Star Wars' bar on Tatooine with everyone fighting.
Record companies are not unique. Artists are. Period!
I wanted a label that reflects the times... a center for artists who want to express themselves. That's what makes Interscope unique. It's about freedom.