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Universal pays tribute to departing Iovine, confirms his replacement
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 29 May 2014
As Beats founder Jimmy Iovine properly makes the move from music to tech as a result of the big Beats deal and the Apple job that comes with it, his outgoing boss at Universal Music rolled out a tribute. And not just because as an early backer of Iovine’s Beats venture, Universal stands to make a reported $400 million from the sale.
Said Lucian Grainge last night: “History teaches us that great entrepreneurs are few and far between. Jimmy Iovine is one of that small number of entrepreneurs who, by doing so much so well in so many different arenas, have left their indelible mark. He founded, and for more than 20 years has led Interscope, a label that has consistently been in the forefront of the music business, both artistically and commercially. He has put in place, developed and mentored there a world-class management team”.
“At the same time, Jimmy co-founded Beats, a wildly-successful, cutting-edge company that revolutionised how consumers listen to music, and from there went on to build a platform that is advancing the evolution of the access model for the entire music industry. Based on mutual trust and respect, UMG’s singular relationship with Jimmy permitted his innovation to flourish in all these ways. Together we created a once-in-a-generation opportunity that allowed Jimmy to maximise the use of his many talents”.
Grainge went on to reveal that Iovine’s COO at Interscope, John Janick, will take over the running of the Universal division. He said: “In recent years, as Jimmy partnered with John Janick, one of the industry’s most talented and promising young executives, Interscope’s results have skyrocketed. We thank Jimmy for both the incomparable leadership he’s provided to Interscope and UMG and for the highly beneficial partnership UMG has enjoyed with Beats. We wish Jimmy the very best and look forward to enhancing our partnerships with Apple and Beats for many years to come”.
While on Janick he added: “I’m thrilled to announce John Janick’s promotion to Chairman and CEO of Interscope. Since coming to UMG nearly two years ago, he has consistently shown why he is widely regarded as one of the most talented, innovative and entrepreneurial executives in the music business today and will be a key player in the future generation of industry leaders. John is the ideal executive to be writing the next chapter in Interscope’s illustrious history”.
