Music career 1970s–1980s: Music production and engineering In the early 1970s, Iovine became a recording engineer, working with
John Lennon and
Bruce Springsteen, among others. By 1973, Iovine was a part of the staff, working for the now-demolished New York City faction of the
Record Plant, where he worked on Springsteen's
Born to Run and
Meat Loaf's
Bat Out of Hell. He came to prominence through his work on
Patti Smith's album
Easter (1978), which included her
Top 40 hit "
Because the Night". He later collaborated with
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on
Damn the Torpedoes and
U2 on
Rattle and Hum. Iovine produced
Bella Donna (the first solo album by former
Fleetwood Mac member
Stevie Nicks),
Making Movies for
Dire Straits,
The Distance for
Bob Seger and
Get Close for
The Pretenders. Iovine served as sound engineer for the
Voyager Golden Records, a pair of phonograph records that were launched aboard the
Voyager space probes in 1977. His father's death and love for
Christmas inspired Iovine to record and oversee
A Very Special Christmas in 1985. The compilation was not released until 1987 under Interscope's future sister label
A&M Records. Iovine chose to not profit off the album and instead used the money from album sales to help fund Special Olympics programs. Following the release of the first album, ten more were produced. The initiative has raised over $145 million and helped more than 110 local Special Olympics programs. He was responsible for supervising the music used in the 1984 romance film
Sixteen Candles,
Streets of Fire and the 1988 comedy film
Scrooged.
1989–2014: Interscope Records In 1989, Iovine and
Ted Field, founder of film production label
Interscope Communications, co-founded
Interscope Records. A year later, the label secured a distribution deal with
Atlantic Records and garnered success with artists including
No Doubt,
4 Non Blondes and
Gerardo. Atlantic owned a 50% stock in the label. Iovine and Field signed
Tupac Shakur to a recording contract as one of the first hip-hop acts under Interscope in 1991. A year later, Interscope became notable for providing distribution, initial funding and financial oversight for the highly successful
Death Row Records. Death Row, founded by
Suge Knight, operated as a subsidiary of Interscope, beginning with the December 14, 1992 release of label artist and producer
Dr. Dre's solo debut album
The Chronic. With singles consisting of "
Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" and "
Let Me Ride", both of which featuring labelmate
Snoop Dogg,
The Chronic sold over five million copies in the United States and became Dr. Dre's best-selling album in his career. Iovine and Dr. Dre formed a friendship following the release of
The Chronic. Over 19 million records sold from Death Row, the label was largely responsible for Interscope's multi-platinum success throughout the 1990s. However, Snoop Dogg accumulated more success on Death Row and Interscope with his November 1993 debut
Doggystyle. It opened at number one on the
Billboard 200 with the biggest first-week sales in 1990s hip hop. In November 1995, Interscope released
Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt, which sold over 16 million copies worldwide as its single, "
Don't Speak" made number one on
Billboard's
Radio Songs chart. In September 1995, after internal conflict with Atlantic Records over controversy concerning the label's support of
gangsta rap, the label and its former parent company at the time,
Time Warner made the decision to sell off its share in Interscope to Iovine and Field. In January 1996,
Doug Morris, chairman and CEO of the music division of
MCA Inc., convinced Iovine and Field to bring Interscope to the company in exchange for acquiring 50% of the label's shares for $200 million. As a result, Interscope was placed in the same company portfolio of labels alongside future sister label
Geffen Records,
MCA Records,
Universal Records and
DreamWorks Records. By then, MCA was sold off by Matsushita Electric (also a parent company of
Panasonic) to Canadian distillery and mass media conglomerate
Seagram. With Interscope now under the MCA and Seagram shade, the label managed to gain more success with Tupac Shakur's
double album All Eyez on Me, which opened at number one on the
Billboard 200 with 566,000 copies sold in its first week. The album became another success for the rap division of the label and Death Row Records, where artist Dr. Dre felt uncomfortable due to founder and former CEO Suge Knight's consistent spending, violent behavior and gang affiliation. As a result, Dr. Dre departed from Death Row and re-signed with Interscope through a new label deal, creating his own imprint called
Aftermath Entertainment. The label's foundation proved to be challenging, when on November 26, 1996, upon release, the compilation
Dr. Dre Presents: The Aftermath, was given a lukewarm response as was
The Firm's
The Album, despite the latter, released on October 21, 1997, almost a year after
Dr. Dre Presents: The Aftermath, debuting at number one on the
Billboard 200. Iovine, as stated on the 2017
HBO documentary,
The Defiant Ones, was pressured by Doug Morris to either give Dr. Dre time to control his music and artists or drop him from his label. Iovine responded, "We could that, but then, you would save my salary as well because I'm going with him." Interscope had further success with Tupac Shakur's posthumous record
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory as well as Snoop Dogg's
Tha Doggfather and
Bush's
Razorblade Suitcase. Iovine offered to sign hip hop entrepreneur
Master P and his imprint,
No Limit Records, but he rejected the offer. Iovine allegedly threatened him and his management team that if they would not consider the Interscope deal, they would never "find another deal in the industry nor in this town". In December 1996, MCA Music Entertainment was renamed
Universal Music Group with Interscope and various other labels now being a part of the newly rebranded UMG. Following Death Row founder Suge Knight's probation violation and prison sentence in 1997, Iovine and Interscope ended their business relationship with Death Row; the final album released under the Death Row/Interscope deal was the soundtrack to the Tupac Shakur action film, ''
Gridlock'd'', which managed to reach the Billboard 200's number one position. In March 1998, Iovine invited Dr. Dre to his house to listen to the
Slim Shady EP, released in 1997 by an underground rapper, who was participating a tournament of rap battles at the time, by the name of
Eminem. The tape eventually landed in the hands of Interscope A&Rs Dean Geistlinger and D.J. Mormile, who later turned it in to label co-founder Ted Field, who also sent it to Iovine for review. Upon suggestion from Iovine, he urged Dr. Dre to find Eminem and have him join the Interscope family through Dre's label, Aftermath. Eminem has found success with both labels despite controversy involving his lyrical themes. On December 10, 1998, Seagram acquired
PolyGram, and it merged with the Universal Music Group. After the PolyGram and MCA merger of Universal Music Group, Interscope became sister labels to new entries
A&M Records,
Def Jam Recordings,
Island Records,
Mercury Records and
Motown. In 1998, Interscope, Geffen and A&M were put together under the umbrella label as
Interscope Geffen A&M Records (IGA). In February 2001, Ted Field parted ways with IGA, leading Iovine to take full control of the labels. In June 2002, Iovine negotiated Eminem and Dr. Dre's joint venture agreement involving then-upcoming hip hop artist and fellow New Yorker
50 Cent. On February 9, 2003, he released his debut studio album, ''
Get Rich or Die Tryin''', to acclaim. Between 1999 and 2003, Iovine merged A&M, DGC, MCA and DreamWorks int Interscope Geffen A&M . Because A&M co-founders
Herb Alpert and
Jerry Moss filed suit against Iovine, Interscope, and UMG for breach of contract involving the label's operations, A&M Records operated as a one-off subsidiary of Interscope Records. The two plaintiffs were given a $200 million out of court settlement. At the end of 2003, Iovine made over $45 million in revenue generated from music sales from his label. For the next four years, Iovine, Interscope and Geffen saw extended success from other artists including
D12,
AFI,
Nelly Furtado,
The Roots,
Gwen Stefani (as a solo artist),
The Game,
Robin Thicke,
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony,
The Pussycat Dolls and others. Iovine discovered
Lady Gaga in 2007 who was sent to work with singer-songwriter
Akon, who in exchange for his mentorship of Gaga, asked Iovine to sign her to
Vincent Herbert's Streamline Records and Interscope. In 2014, Universal Music Group reported that Iovine was departing from Interscope Records, ending his twenty-five year tenure with the label and vacating his fifteen-year dual position as chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M Records (now
Interscope Capitol Labels Group, as of 2024). It was confirmed that the
Fueled by Ramen co-founder
John Janick was hired as Iovine's replacement. Janick was hired to become Interscope's president and COO in 2012. The final artist Iovine signed to his label was
J. Cole. On May 28, 2014, Iovine effectively vacated his CEO and chairman positions, while departing from Interscope. The news of his departure from the label occurred following the sale of his and Dr. Dre's headphone company,
Beats Electronics, to
Apple Inc. Business career Beats Electronics In 2006, Iovine worked with Dr. Dre to create
Beats Electronics. It was originally a conversation between the two where Iovine exclaimed to Dr. Dre, "fuck sneakers, we need to do speakers." The first set of headphones were produced in 2007 and were launched in 2008. From 2009 to 2011, Beats enclosed endorsement deals with
Monster Cable and
Hewlett-Packard. The company had captured 20 percent market share of the headphones industry by 2012. In January 2013, Iovine announced the expansion of Beats into the online digital music world with Daisy, a new service slated to launch in late 2013. Former
Topspin Media executive Ian Rogers and
Nine Inch Nails frontman
Trent Reznor were said to be involved. In January 2014,
Beats Music was developed and opened to the public after being announced on December 8, 2013. On May 28, 2014,
Apple Inc. announced the acquisition of Beats Electronics. The acquisition gave Dr. Dre and Iovine a share of over $3.24 billion, becoming the largest acquisition deal in the history of Apple's timeline. Iovine was hired to assume an undisclosed position at Apple where he helped in the creation of
Apple Music, which was launched in the summer of 2015 as replacement for Beats Music. On June 26, 2018, Iovine and Dr. Dre were ordered to pay $25 million to former partner and creative designer, Steven Lamar, who sued the two co-founders for $100 million in unpaid royalties for designing the early Beats headphone models. The lawsuit was filed in 2015 after news broke out of Apple's acquisition of the headphone brand a year prior. He was the creative consultant for Apple Music until August 2018. Citing high usage of music technology and little direction to where Apple Music could be headed to, Iovine quietly left the company and effectively retired from the media industry. In August 2023, it was announced that the Iovine and Young Center was partnering with Atlanta Public Schools to open a new learning center at Frederick Douglass High School in August 2024. The goal of the center is to prepare students for their future academics and careers. In August 2024, Iovine and Dr. Dre announced they would partner with Inglewood Unified School District to open a new high school to help revive a district that had been forced to close schools due to declining enrollment. Regarding the partnership, Iovine stated, “We wanted to start in the inner city, because Dre and especially me, I owe a lot to the inner city of Los Angeles and we intend to pay it back.”
Film and documentary productions In 2002, Iovine and former
Shady Records president
Paul Rosenberg co-produced
8 Mile, which opened at number one in the box office and went on to gross more than $240 million worldwide. The film also garnered an
Academy Award for Best Original Song for its theme song, "
Lose Yourself", making Eminem the first rapper to win this award. Additionally, Iovine executive produced the 2005 crime drama ''
Get Rich or Die Tryin', named after the 2003 debut album of its leading star, 50 Cent. He also produced the 2009 documentary More than a Game'', which centered on the life and career of basketball athlete
LeBron James; his label Interscope released a
soundtrack for the documentary.
Television career In 2005, Iovine made a guest appearance as himself in the
Family Guy fourth season episode "
Don't Make Me Over". From 2011 to 2013, Iovine was a mentor on
Fox's
American Idol. Iovine's protégés—
Scotty McCreery,
Phillip Phillips,
Jessica Sanchez, and
Candice Glover—released their music through Interscope. Iovine departed from the show in mid-2013; he was replaced by
Randy Jackson. In July 2017, HBO ran a four-part documentary about Jimmy Iovine's relationship with Dr. Dre and other musicians titled
The Defiant Ones.
Voice roles Iovine and Dr. Dre had provided their voices and motion capture performances in two downloadable content updates for
Grand Theft Auto Online (2013); the first was 2020's
Cayo Perico Heist and the second was 2021's
The Contract, the latter of which the player helps to unlock unreleased music by Dr. Dre in between missions or after completing them. ==Philanthropy==