Jimmy Iovine Talks Founding Interscope Records, Apple Music & Selling Beats By Dre | Blueprint

[Music] from recording engineer to record producer to label executive to headphone magnet to streaming gladiator Jimmy Iovine change the music we listen to and then change how we listen to music this is his blueprint early on you did not excel in school and in fact got fired from your first couple jobs at a certain point though something changes inside you and all of a sudden the work as an engineer starts to stick what happened I had a lot of insecurities and a lot of fear and I was one of those guys like I'm at hope they don't hit the ball to me you know when I got to the studio although I got fired for my first two jobs what I found is that I clicked with the owners I've had a lot of relationships over the years that when I connect with certain people I can get something done they asked me to come in on Easter Sunday in 1973 to answer the phones and Italian of Catholic from Brooklyn my mother thought it was a bad idea but I went anyway I was like I'll do anything and what they were doing was testing me which is really kind of funny anyway as a 22 23 year old you end up in the studio with guys like Springsteen who was on his way to be very established that's right John Lennon who was at top of his game how did you create that connection and how did you establish credibility with those people you're there to help make their project better and part of that is caring as much about their music as they do I just said that these people allowing me in this room I'm going to do as much as I can to be of service to them that's what it was built on the odds with you I wouldn't lie record companies down to my studio I feel that when you're making music that if you play it through someone in the process of being made no matter what that person does if that person doesn't react reacts great or reacts poorly it confuses the artist when you started working with Tom Petty you framed sort of the success of the record in terms of money in terms of this is going to buy you another car buy a house that you thought the rappers invented it well at what point you know you you started as like a fan of music I started the fan of music and my father was a longshoreman I wasn't cool so I wanted to be cool I wanted to have a better life so I wanted money and I didn't want to be a longshoreman you know is that that simple and I just so when I saw Tom I said people leave me play me those songs I said man we're going to be rich so at that point like how much of an understanding of how the business of music work did you have very little I knew that one thing I was getting paid by the hour and in my new job I was getting paid a royalty when you're dealing with artists if to sort of navigate their supreme confidence and also their supreme insecurities how do you deliver honest feedback without spitting them out of their mojo your job is to be honest that's why you're there now I don't do it with a sledgehammer you have to be truthful somebody play's me a song that I think is not as good as it could be or should be doesn't mean that I'm right just means that's how I feel and you have to say it because if you don't say it then what are you doing there you are notorious for your phone calls and long phone conversations with your artists what was the significance of that correspondence as a producer you have a responsibility to understand the person's record you're making understand what they're trying to get out and I would spend a lot of time on the phone after the sessions whether it be Stevie Nicks Tom Petty Patti you know whatever I would just spend a lot of time in managing these artists drugs and substance abuse for something that a lot of them used to fuel their creativity and it took them to the top and then a number of them had you know tough periods what was your philosophy in dealing with that well see one I'm a producer and a friend right I do everything I possibly can but I what I've learned when you get older and it happens close to you what happens around you enough you realize that these people are responsible for their own sobriety and their own lives you could just do so much unless they want to fix it it's not getting fixed as you became more successful and your reputation preceded you how did you decide what artist you wanted to work with and what you can do you turn away I would always go buy stuff that I really liked but I felt like it helped you know or Duo contribute a lot of different ways to do it but you try to stay in music where you have a feel for it so you're not just lost like other goes in the story when I when I produce Foghat there wasn't my kind of music they were great I wasn't even good yet and I screwed that up I got fired from that - is there a single record or song that you look back and you think that that is sort of the high-water mark of your career as a producer well there's nothing like your first hit you know and because the night by Patti Smith was an incredible moment it changed my life that one song changed my Jimmy enjoyed meteoric success producing records but as the Brooklyn native aged is interested in studio life Wayne and he pivoted utilizing his golden ear and ability to coach the artists as an executive instead as you make the transition in late 80s Early 90s from being a producer to being a label executive did you have the feeling that you had sort of scratched all creative itches at that point or what was the motivation I felt that I wasn't natural in the studio anymore in the 70s and the early 80s I was the same age as the artist making the records as I started to get older around 37 or 38 I started to feel like music is changing younger you know and then you become a producer and a record label and are whatever they don't want to bring you in because you don't have as much influence on the record when you're in there and then I had a son and I was end up coming because two sessions in those days was 12 to 14 hours so I was never seeing my new son and then David Geffen just sold his record company and I said to myself well you know I said he could do the same thing I do but he's making a lot more money maybe I could go home at night right so those are the things I went into except nothing more complicated than that when you started Interscope did you have sort of a specific space in mind that you were going to fill that you saw that there was an opportunity yes we wanted to feel like Atlantic in 1970 Atlantic Records where they had Ray Charles Aretha Franklin Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones and we wanted our company to feel like that we felt we got there you know we had Nine Inch Nails at marilyn manson we had Park snoop and Dre in the first three years which was pretty good got us in trouble with that by design of course not are you kidding again like up from a place where the artists get to do exactly what they want and no compromise I'm not going to sit down there until Tupac or Trent Reznor you know I want to change the lyrics or change that'll change they're like collecting that hope that's a little bunch of you know we did whatever felt exciting in the mid 90s death row at their height east-west war is going on and you are a man in his mid-40s going to movie premieres with bulletproof vest on how did you rationalize that to yourself or to your family first of all death row owned their own company from day one I said we're may going to deal with that throw away they own the Masters it meant a lot to me that they owned their massive so I made a deal like that with them no they weren't robbing banks they weren't selling drugs they were legitimate businessmen they would just get involved in violence which is maddening but it made no sense what could anybody do what talk to them I had I saw the guys over my house all the time saying this is nuts but some of them didn't have the tools to handle the success at Interscope from 1990 to say 2005 you guys basically just sword and sword and sword and sword and around 2005 some of the marquee artists cooled off a little bit and it seemed like your attention started to wander but what happened to me was Napster and I didn't like the way the record industry was handling it I just decided to build something else there are you know around music I wanted to build businesses with our artists and that's how beech got started what part of building that business did you find creatively fulfilled oh it's very simple Dre and I both felt that headphones sounded Sturrock we wanted it to sound exciting so we said if we make a headphone where the design is beautiful and we make them cool enough and we market them like they're either guns and roses or Snoop Dogg Tupac I said I think that'll work and that's what we did so that's what was creative was creative was developing anti new market Bo's was looking at headphones like okay go to sleep on a plane we were looking at motivation we're looking at is emotion and we wanted to sell something that would get you off your ass you've had to be very flexible throughout your career to transition from one thing to another what do you think it has been the thing that has allowed you to do that I like to pivot I was always somebody like that because like putting a great DJ what makes him great is he gets bored before the audience and he changes the song right looks like a magician like oh good I'm so glad that song changed I get complacent and bored I got bored of producing records I got bored of running a record company I wanted to move on Jimmy foresaw the eruption that technology would bring to the music industry but when his longtime partners balked at his proposed solution Jimmy found new ones willing to break the mold and embrace the future of music with it when you started beats what was your exit strategy from day one had you eat even considered the silence I was always obsessed with streaming music from 1999 we had a company called Jimmy and bugs farm club Oh TV show that was supposed to be a streaming service you know then we parted with Sony and you couldn't get the deals done it just was impossible that's why when I met Steve Jobs in Eddy Cue I said these are the only guys that can get this done they not they understand it they can get it done they're behind the artists and behind copyright and otherwise we are going to be making trying to make these deals between the labels for a very long time Apple music is fairly different from your other endeavors right it's a product that is aiming for ubiquity and it's trying to reach everyone how do you think about running that business differently well again Trent Reznor and I got together on beach music because we had a similar vision felt there were a lot missing we didn't want but the distribution of music to be left just in the hands of technology companies we saw it as a new art form of like way okay let's create something that moves but unless the streaming services become literally of service and they make your life that much better more interesting it moon scale when you looked at you know the competitive landscape whether it's Pandora or Spotify like what did you feel like they were missing in terms of service so I felt like when we got into it they felt like utilities these things need to live more like music companies and iTunes was an incredible thing that Steve and those guys came up with but I always felt streaming need to be something different than that what is success at Apple music look like first of all great is success we want it to be great and unique and new working every day to get there so that's one form of success when artists can work freely on and the labels came to face with it when they have to and you know it is a lot needs to be done the other thing is we just closed our second year and we're you know somewhere around thirty million people so that's pretty good so success is both those things because we do the first one right the second one will come it seems like everyone is hurting the artists the streaming services and the labels the economics aren't working for any of them what do you think is the single biggest thing that has to be changed in order to make that work for all three label need to get more sophisticated in tech you're kind of banking on everything staying the same only the technology companies are moving at 100 miles an hour when you're inside a tech company you realize how many years out they are planning in the short run if you want this in to grow fastest somebody's got to deal with free because it's being taken advantage of right now the artists are suffering they're artists getting killed in this for example the Billboard chart is weighted where a stream on YouTube is weighted the same as a stream on Apple music pay or Spotify pay to me who's a record maker that sounds like fake news and the labels and billboard they say they're going to get it right but they need to fix that because that causes the artists to promote themselves to free tiers and it's counter productive that has to get fixed do you think you know as the distribution has been democratized and also fractured because the internet will ever see artists of the same size as Eminem in 2002 or I believe so I think people like for example Adele she takes off a year two years three years to make an album to write it produce it make sure it's exactly right Kendrick Lamar stop everything else and made the album you can hear it when they do it a lot of things are working against creativity and it's stunting musical growth the industry needs to do those little things to not you got to be careful with creativity or else you'll go into a dark period in music just think it's capable the cable doesn't all have to be the Renaissance of music you can go into a part where music it's very sterile vandal get brought back up again so you always run the risk of that that's my fear you've obviously achieved pretty much everything that anyone could want to achieve both in terms of your legacy and also monetarily what is it that makes you get up in the morning and go into the beats office well cuz I've made a promise I promised Tim and Eddie that I would do everything I could to make apple music successful and I'm going to do that and then at some point you know I'm not young anymore yeah I'm 64 years old you know I'll see what happens but right now I'm committed to those guys and that company and to the people that work at Apple music and to the artists I gave me a break when I was a kid to try to help get this right and you still enjoy it I don't know if I ever enjoyed it if it's work to me I look at it as work me personally what I have to do to get something done is physical and emotional to me when you say am I having fun I mean am I having as much fun as in melty coasts on Italy on my friend's boat no but I'm I enjoy my work but it's work when you look back at your career is there a single through line that has propelled all of the successes yeah turning fear into a tailwind instead of ahead bring fear is as powerful as the force if you can harness it what it hasit because people I can honest it you're going to have a big big advantage and that goes for anybody from six to sixty you just you figure out how to do that and how is that fear it's powerful and that's it's very simple that's been my whole thing when I feel fear I trained myself to move forward what's the thing that you're afraid of well first of all anyone who does something that turns out really well if you if you're a creative person you're afraid the next thing is not going to be as good and the fights never over with fear it popped up something I didn't realize you were afraid of then you have kids and you're afraid of something else and so it's never gone it's just you've got to harness it are there missteps or moments of regret now I have a rear view mirror I really don't this is the first time ever look back on anything but a rearview mirror Lane taking victory laps and those are waste of time to me you know I'm like let's go what's new what's tomorrow that's what I was always about so I made a lot of mistakes who doesn't but I don't care about the mistakes I care about the overall thing and while you making them you learn by them and you move on I don't look at life like that I took your rear view mirror out of my car and a long time ago [Music]

Channel: Complex

Views: 564,365

Rating: 4.8757491 out of 5

Keywords: complex, complex originals, sneakers, news, entertainment, current affairs, men, man, young man, culture, cool, edgy, funny, complex tv, complex media, Jimmy Iovine, Noah Callahan-Bever, Blueprint, Beats, Beats by Dre, Dr. Dre, Tupac, Jay Z, Snoop Dogg, Notorious BIG, Marilyn Manson, Eminem, U2, Lady Gaga, Santa Monica, California, Death Row Records, Apple Music, Streaming, Apple, Interscope Records, Complex, Defiant Ones, HBO, Music, Motivation, Complex Music, miller 17

Id: 8U8Iku1Ov2Q

Length: 18min 53sec (1133 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 10 2017