Top 95 Jimmy Iovine Quotes

My life changed because Bruce Springsteen got on a mic in front of me.

I follow cool. When I went up to see Steve Jobs, I said, ‘The party’s at this guy’s house.’

I knew in my heart that I wasn’t cool, but I figured I could at least be cool by association.

Talent is talent.

We have a problem in the industry, I believe. This whole ‘free’ issue. The television industry doesn’t have it, the movie industry doesn’t have it, but the record industry has it.

Dre’s from Compton, I’m from Brooklyn, and we both wanted to make a better life for ourselves, right? And we both – somehow, we’re both recording engineers, that’s how we got our break.

The good news is in the record business, they only count your successes.

What’s happened to the music industry, from my perspective, is a lot of great music is behind the wall that can’t get through, and therefore, a lot of artists are getting discouraged.

We created Apple Music to make finding the right music easier for everyone – men and women, young and old.

I like ‘The Voice.’

I can’t learn in school, but I can learn from somebody who I think is cool and great.

I’m not a pioneer of hip-hop; I just saw it and said, ‘This thing is incredible, and these people are incredible. They should be exposed all over the world.’

I’m happy with studio infiltration, but I’m thrilled when I see 12- to 20-year olds walking down the street with Beats and not two-dollar earbuds.

It was frustrating that young people, through no fault of their own, were listening to terrible $2 ear buds. You can’t get good sound out of those.

The record industry needs a company like HTC to bring music to the phone.

You’re only as good as your weakest link in the ecosystem of sound, of audio.

Bob Dylan enabled rock & roll to grow up and survive. He injected the power of language and ideas into the music.

Dylan captured what was on a million minds and turned it into poetry. With ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ or ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’,’ he set a whole new standard.

I didn’t feel comfortable as an executive. I felt comfortable around artists and record producers… and then I found my niche: I gotta find great producers, and I produce them.

I consider the recording studio where I was born.

I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple.

I feel open to anything.

I didn’t have any sophistication. I didn’t really have any great taste or anything like that. I was just a kid from Brooklyn. But what I learnt is the why, the how. The work ethic.

Girls are sitting around talking about boys, right? Or complaining about boys, when they have their heart broken or whatever, and they need music for that, right? And they need music for that. So it’s hard to find the right music. Not everyone has the right list or knows a DJ.

I always say, ‘I love chocolate, but I’m not Willy Wonka.’

All I’ve ever wanted to do is move the needle on popular culture.

We want PC makers to have better audio because these things are used as home stereos by a lot of people, and that makes it suck.

Curation is everything.

I make my world chaotic. It’s like a whirlpool.

You have to think, ‘What can I do to help my team develop, grow, and become better performers?’ rather than, ‘What’s in it for me?’

Labels need to work with artists to help them achieve their best work, not to jam records out that are half-baked or three-quarters baked.

If you are not frightened, you are not original.

I couldn’t do a show; I have about as much talent to do television as, you know… it’s not what I do. I wouldn’t know where to begin.

When you’re making music, you don’t look at what’s going on in the studio next to you.

I don’t look at Spotify or Rdio or any of these guys as a direct competitor: I look at other forms of entertainment as the competitor.

If you’re looking for a quick hit, that means you’re looking for something disposable.

You go into any recording studio in the world, and you see candles, lights, and that Apple light from a Mac.

When I was a label head, I didn’t think I was greedy. I’ve always run my own race.

All I ever really work for is to be a really good engineer, a good producer, a good executive, good in the world of Beats. That’s power to me.

Apple Music is about getting things early and pushing them out.

Apple Music is a big idea, and it’s going to take some time to fulfill its overall dream.

What I saw in the record industry is it’s just getting more restricted, more restricted, more restricted to where everyone’s trying to figure out what kind of song to make to get on the radio: that’s researched and where advertisers are telling you what to play.

If you’re great, that means you’re freaked out that the next day you’re not going to be great. You keep trying.

The whole thing about playlists is what song comes next.

The great artists of music have always innovated and boldly changed the game, but the industry itself has not.

People need service – great service where music is concerned.

I’m interested in listening to the people who walk in the door. If your ego and your accomplishments stop you from listening, then they’ve taught you nothing.

You shouldn’t take a customer who’s buying an album, who’s happy buying an album, and try to tell them that what they’re doing is wrong.

Ground zero for me is audio.

The sound of my voice is more famous than me.

It’s hard to say if something is worth the wait, because how the hell do any of us know?

I am blessed with the energy of a chimpanzee. There is nothing I can’t get up for and give it a hundred percent.

Nobody wanted to be in business with Death Row because, unfortunately, they felt there was an element there that could be dangerous. But I just knew they had great music and that they were a bunch of guys who wanted to make it out of the ghetto. That’s something I can understand.

Apple Music is trying to create an entire pop culture experience that includes audio and video. If South Park walks into my office, I’m not going to say, ‘You’re not musicians.’ We’re going to do whatever hits pop culture smack on the nose.

If you’re an artist, and you put out a record – most artists only have one or two hit records – that has 100 million streams, on certain services you only get paid on 75% of those streams. How’s an artist going to live like that?

If I were going to teach a course, it would be called Don’t Breathe Your Own Exhaust.

There are thousands of Eminems. Just listen to a song. There are thousands of them. It’s just that he had the talent. It’s like someone with a talent to hit a baseball. He had the talent to write lyrics.

I wanted a label that reflects the times… a center for artists who want to express themselves. That’s what makes Interscope unique. It’s about freedom.

There are geniuses, savants; I’m not one of them. I work hard, I see where popular culture’s going to move, but I’ve gotta keep having information pumped into me. I look under every rock.

We at Interscope put projects out with anyone we believe has a great idea and is a true talent, whether it’s a musician, photographer, software developer, or technology innovator.

Those athletes are not going to wear my headphones because I asked them.

You should try and fail and not be afraid. Get up again.

We’re trying to make the music service a cultural point of reference, and that’s why we’re making video. We’re making video for our Apple Music customers and our future customers.

Apple, of all the global tech companies, was the one that understood why artists make things.

I just kept making social mistakes in my career.

It’s time you stop thinking that because you did something, it’s… amazing. All you’ve got to do is say, ‘OK. If I’m great, what do they call Steve Jobs?’

My relationships are helped because of all the success I’ve had, but I’m only as useful as the idea I have today or tomorrow. Otherwise, I’m just a trophy.

Just because you did something once doesn’t mean anything. You have to be willing in your heart to begin again every day. The minute I’m not willing to do that, I will retire.

Apple was selling $400 iPods with $1 earbuds. They’re making a beautiful white object with all the music in the world in it… I’m going to make a beautiful black object that will play it back.

Every artist and every song has an idea, and the producer’s job is to capture it.

The media people need to have real tech people, and the tech people need media people. Otherwise, you have the ‘Star Wars’ bar on Tatooine with everyone fighting.

Life is a balance of fear and overcoming it.

Genres are just names.

The lousy guitar player in any band is the bass player.

I’m trying to help Apple Music be an overall movement in popular culture, everything from unsigned bands to video.

I’m not going to be the guy who sold the last CD.

I enjoy Tupac’s music. I enjoy Tupac.

To get people to pay for something that you built, it has to be of service. It has to make somebody’s life better.

In the entertainment business, everybody is desperately insecure, and the guys in Silicon Valley seem to be slightly overconfident.