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David Senra: Jimmy Iovine, Interscope Records & Beats by Dre

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Jimmy Iovine is the co-founder of Interscope Records, Beats by Dre, and the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy. Iovine is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the modern music industry. Growing up in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, Iovine was raised in an Italian working-class family. He began working as a recording engineer in the early 1970s, and went on to engineer landmark albums including Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll and Walls and Bridges, before transitioning into production with Patti Smith's Easter, Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes, Stevie Nicks' Bella Donna, and U2's Rattle and Hum. In 1990, Iovine co-founded Interscope Records with Ted Field. Under his leadership, the label became one of the most dominant forces in popular music, launching or elevating the careers of Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt, Eminem, 50 Cent, Lady Gaga, and Kendrick Lamar. He rose to become chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. In 2006, he and Dr. Dre co-founded Beats by Dre, which Apple acquired in 2014 for $3 billion — the largest acquisition in Apple's history at the time. Iovine subsequently hel

David Senra: I want to start with what you were just saying before we started recording. I was like, "Rob, hurry up and run the tape." You said, "We live in a corny world." Jimmy Iovine: We've gone from fame replacing great, right? So it became more important at one point to be famous than to be great, because there's a currency. You had to be great at one time to get a record deal, to do all that stuff, and then that sort of dwindled as time went on, which is fine. Jimmy Iovine: But it has absolutely replaced great, and what you can do on the internet, and market yourself, and all this…

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