Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are spearheading video streaming in Apple Music
Jimmy Iovine recently discussed in an interview Apple Music’s plans for video streaming with help from Dre, and the future of music streaming.
Speaking with Variety Iovine discussed how Apple Music have been developing their music streaming service and how the future looks as they continue to expand and innovate, particularly their plans to stream video. Iovine joined Apple when they bought Beats for $3 billion, acquiring their massively popular headphone and speaker biz and taking on their failing streaming service.
Iovine explained the difficulty after the acquisition, saying: “We were never going to be able to scale [Beats Music] because the business model was very difficult, and still is. I didn’t think I could have finished it on my own. We knew exactly what we were doing, meaning that [joining Apple] is the outcome we wanted.” Years later Iovine now heads up Apple’s own Apple Music which has rocketed to success since it’s launch in 2015.
With a variety of plans to introduce video to Apple Music, Iovine explained: “We’re trying to make the music service a cultural point of reference, and that’s why we’re making video. We’re making video for our Apple Music customers and our future customers.”
According to Iovine rapper, producer and most recently Apple executive Dr. Dre is also taking a hands on approach with video in Apple Music, working with close friend Jimmy Iovine. Iovine said: “Dre’s purpose in life is to come up with something that moves the needle. He’s done that really seriously a bunch of times. And now he’s experimenting with video. And what he does will be unique, and he will get there. My responsibility to Apple and to him is to put him in that position where he can.”
Iovine assures that they don’t plan to take on video streaming services like Netflix and Amazon with the introduction of video. When asked if they planned to take them on, Iovine said: “I wouldn’t put it that way. When I read that, or I read that we’re taking on whomever, I say no. To me it’s all one thing. It’s Apple Music, and it happens to have video and audio. It has nothing to do with what Netflix is doing.”
Speaking on the future of music outside of Apple Music, Iovine commented: “Right now there’s a lot of fear in the record business, and the corporations should make it so the labels can relax a bit and be more adventurous. When the businesses are levelling out or going down, and you’re still asking for growth, you don’t have to be a mathematician to know what happens.
“Big tech companies are buying up entertainment companies. But someone at these companies has got to speak both languages, or it’s never going to work.”
Talking about when he first met Apple’s top brass over 10 years before joining them, Iovine said: “When I first met Steve [Jobs] and Eddy [Cue] in 2003, I said, ‘These guys should have an entertainment company’. They had all these technologies and these entertainment companies, but they couldn’t put it all together. Apple, of all the global tech companies, was the one that understood why artists make things.”