Jimmy Iovine Talks About Technology and the Music Industry

It’s not every day we get to hear Jimmy Iovine speak, because he doesn’t do many interviews. With his documentary, The Defiant Ones, coming to HBO soon, he sat down with Pharrell and Scott Vener on Beats 1 to talk about some interesting things.

Iovine explained the exact moment when he wanted to jump ship from the music industry into technology and it happened when he met Steve Jobs. He claims that the industry has not yet caught up to the technology and at the time (around 2003), the game was struggling to fight against Napster and mp3 piracy, so much that they weren’t embracing it. As a result, they lost millions of dollars with their lack to change with the times and it hasn’t been until recently, that they have embraced technology.

He also claims that artists are so ahead of the major labels and some don’t even need them to blow up. And that’s thanks to technology. That’s why some artists have blown up because of YouTube and Soundcloud, not because of major labels and those companies are left scrambling to catch up to their buzz and capitalize off of it.

Peep this and more of their conversation above.

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