Nathan Schwartz

10/25/2020

HFT 4398

Entrepreneur Archival Profile

For my Entrepreneur Archival Profile, I have chosen to write about Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy

Iovine is a pioneer of the modern music industry having co-founded Interscope Records, one of

the biggest labels of all time and Beats Headphones (with Dr. Dre) , which he sold to Apple

along with their streaming service (which became Apple Music) for three billion dollars. Jimmy

started as a Recording Engineer for 20 years in the 70s for huge artists like John Lennon, U2,

Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty before he was able to come up with the funding to start his

own label with Ted Field. What separated Interscope from other labels was that rather than being

founded by old A&Rs, it was founded by a man of the music industry, who had spent a large part

of the last 20 years in recording studios seeing first hand how the recording process works. The

biggest reason for success for Interscope Records was his understanding of where the music

industry was going, which lead to him signing Tupac Shakur and making a deal to distribute and

finance music made by Death Row Records, while other labels continued to sign rock acts who

would have been popular with the previous generation due to being out of touch.

Ted Field, Jimmy’s partner, came from a rich family and saw success in the 80s with his

Interscope film company, which produced over 50 major films, before selling it in 1987. Because

of this, he had the funding to put up money for Interscope Records. He did not have much

control over creative decisions, which is why Interscope is often considered solely Iovine’s

business, but the label would not exist today without him. They had the idea to start the label
when Field contacted him with the business opportunity as it was always Iovine’s dream to begin

a label, he just did not have the means to do it himself. Eventually, in 2001, Field sold his stake

in the company leaving what once was Iovine’s dream in his sole possession.

Interscope Records tries to appeal to sign artists to appeal to all audience in order to sell

their products to the most vast array of people possible. Interscope’s clientele includes rap artists

like Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, Electronic Dance Music artists like DJ Snake, Tame

Impala and Zedd, Pop Artists like Billie Eilish and Maroon 5, and Legacy Rock Acts like The

Who, The Rolling Stones and U2 for the older generation. While most firms are only limited to

certain demographics, Interscope has something for everybody, they just may not make money

off someone who does not have an interest in the music industry. Nonetheless, music is

everywhere, and it is nearly impossible for someone to not know a single song in the Interscope

Records catalog. It is likely the customer they are currently trying to recruit, however, are people

in the ages of 16-23. When young people become interested in an artist, not only does the label

that artist is signed to make money, but the value of that music skyrockets once those kids

become adults for purposes like advertising, making the label which owns the rights to the music

unbelievably successful in the long run. This is why many artists, once they make their money,

tend to invest in older artist’s music rather than investing in new artists, such as when Michael

Jackson bought the entire catalog of songs written by the Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. It

is likely that the rights older music can only increase in value over the years, while investing in a

new artist can be a huge gamble. Anyone older with an interest in bands like The Rolling Stones

already know what they like and don’t need to be convinced of the product’s quality like a

younger artist’s quality needs to be proven to a group of teenagers.

 The benefit being provided to the consumer is the memories that they can create with the

music. For many people, including myself, a song can become very dear to them due to what,

who, when or where they think of when they hear it. I am sure that this can be said for a vast

array of songs in the Interscope Records catalog for an even more vast array of people. Without

the promotion of the label, the consumer may never find these songs that become so important to

their lives. The label, outside of running advertising campaigns and paying streaming services to

feature their artists’ songs on users’ “recommended for you” pages, is in charge of pressing

music on vinyl and on CD, giving consumers access to physical music which the artists would

not have a way of printing otherwise. The record label also is in charge of distributing these CDs

and Vinyl to major department stores like Target, Barnes and Noble and Walmart, online stores

like Amazon, and local record stores across the country. Recently, this has been a topic of

controversy, as artists don’t make money off of record sales due to their contracts, but the labels

defend themselves saying that even though the artists make the music, they put all the work into

the distribution, which is the only reason the artists are able to create a fan base to make money

off of touring which is actually a more lucrative industry.

One interesting story about Iovine is how he got himself into a position to even start a

label. After dropping out of John Jay College of Criminal Justice after his freshman year, he got

a job at a local music studio cleaning floors. He never had any intention of working in the music

industry and instead planned on being a lawyer, but he always had a passion for music having

played bass in a band in high school. One time, he was standing in a session for John Lennon,

cleaning the studio, when he noticed something in the mix that did not sound right. John was

impressed and he took over from that moment on mastering the rest of his album. After this,

having his name in the credits on a John Lennon album, he became a very desired person in the
music industry and ended up being hired by countless young artists trying to reach John’s stature,

and as is often said, the rest is history. It is crazy that one of the biggest icons in music history

and the most important people in the music industry could have never been in the industry if it

wasn’t for one of the biggest visionaries of all time seeing something in him.

My personal opinion on Iovine is that he is an absolute genius. He has had a hand in the

career of and has a relationship with just about every living popular artist in modern music and in

pop music history. In order to juggle all of those egos of all these living legends, one has to be

very smart and aware of the discourses needed to communicate with each of these people

individually. I think he is one of the best A&Rs of all time in the sense that he was able to listen

to the kids rather than those who were in their 40s like he was when he started his label. Many

people would have been afraid to get anywhere near the Rap industry, not just due to not being

able to understand the appeal but also because of the perceived danger of it at the time in an era

where Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. were both murdered with no explanation. This was

a risk because this danger may have also affected its appeal but in my opinion, people like a little

danger, which is why rollercoasters are popular, and is why rap is as popular as it is today.

Without seminal albums like Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” and Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle”, hip hop

may not exist as it does today. Iovine gave hip hop the push and the funding it needed to reach

the general public. I also applaud him for his ability to diversify his sources of income with the

founding of Beats headphones. Many of the best record executives lose their money after their

artists become irrelevant but Iovine made sure income continued coming in through his

headphone brand. Beats would go on to become the most popular Headphone brand of all time

and would force headphones to go from a practical way to listen to music on the go to a fashion

statement due to brand endorsements from his various connections such as Lebron James, Drake
and Eminem. One thing I respect him for but I do not think I would do in his position is his

presence in television. For two seasons, Iovine served as a Guest Judge and a Coach on

American Idol, a show he was credited as a producer of for those two seasons. While I

understand he likely made money for his appearance, if I had an estimated net worth of a billion

dollars like him and had money continuously flowing in, I would want my life to be private and

would not want to be seen by millions of Americans at home. More recently, him and Dr. Dre

also produced a documentary about the two of them and their connected rises in the music

industry. This is probably a tactic to secure his legacy and to have something for the next

generation to refer to if they want to learn about the past of the music industry and two dominant

figures in it. This is likely a television appearance I would sooner make in his shoes. Today,

Iovine lives in California and is the chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M, a conglomerate of his

label and two other major labels they acquired over time, as well as a consultant for Apple

having played a major part in the creation of their Apple Music service. He has not produced an

album since 2014 but continues to be a major part of many popular artists careers as an A&R.

Works Cited:

Kinky Boots (film). (2020, October 27). Retrieved November 02, 2020, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinky_Boots_(film)