David Senra · Feb 1Jimmy Iovine: Building Interscope Records & Beats by Dre
Started as hardware inside Interscope, with 30 prototypes a week after Dre and Iovine talked for about ten minutes. Placed in every Interscope music video, it became number one in 50 countries, beating Sennheiser in Germany and Sony in Japan, and sold to Apple for $3 billion.
Tips
- Jimmy Iovine refused to be the guy who sold the last CD and quit Interscope to build Beats▶ 52:11Beats came three years later and was sold to Apple in 2014, number one in 50 countries.
- Iovine moved Interscope laterally into hardware, streaming and distribution to own the whole chain from artist to listener▶ 37:59Headphones came first, then he bought the streaming service MOG in about 2011 and renamed it Beats Music.
- Iovine saw that the music industry never had a customer and built Beats to get one▶ 46:06At the Apple sale Beats was number one in Germany over Sennheiser and in Japan over Sony.
- Iovine used Interscope's own music videos as the marketing engine for Beats headphones▶ 47:06Beats became the number one headphone company in the world and sold to Apple for $3 billion.
- Iovine says marketing is empathy: know your audience and make the product great▶ 48:03
- Iovine spotted bad competitors in plain sight and positioned Beats against the headphone category▶ 36:44Dre says the conversation lasted about ten minutes, and Iovine had 30 prototypes a week later.
