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News April 28, 2017

Jimmy Iovine’s plans to make Apple Music “an overall movement”

Jimmy Iovine’s plans to make Apple Music “an overall movement”

“A music service needs to be more than a bunch of songs and a few playlists. I’m trying to help Apple Music be an overall movement in popular culture, everything from unsigned bands to video. We have a lot of plans.”

Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine is planning to deepen the streaming service’s venture into Netflix territory, in ways that go far beyond its audio roots.

In a lengthy interview to Bloomberg, Iovine said Apple Music is working on 10 original series. They include will.i.am’s Shark Tank-esqe Planet of the Apps with Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary V and Jessica Alba, as well as a sequel to R. Kelly’s rap opera Trapped in the Closet – an interesting move considering Kelly’s past, including the fact he has been accused of having sex with girls as young as 14.

Iovine has also been in discussions with Warner Bros. Television about a series on Dr. Dre’s life and inked the delayed Carpool Karaoke series after meeting its creator James Cordon at a party at Guy Oseary’s house.

Iovine’s move beyond music has seen him collaborate with Empire TV show producer Brian Grazer and director J.J. Abrams – although he’s remained tight-lipped about what those conversations have involved.

“We have the freedom, because it’s Apple, to make one show, three shows, see what works, see what doesn’t until it feels good,” he said.

With the next version of the Apple Music app for iOS – reportedly created to “better showcase video” – arriving in the Australian Spring, as well as a new TV app in the works, Apple aims to make it more difficult for consumers to trade their iPhone or Apple TV for Google or Amazon’s equivalent.

It’s all good news for consumers, however; as Apple Music seeks to offer a point of difference, it in turn grows the market and the user experience.

As reported in our coverage of this week’s Global Music Report, Spotify’s Director of Economics, Will Page believes the competition is “based around market growing, not market stealing.”

“At the moment, we are growing, Apple’s growing, Amazon’s growing, and other services are coming on board, and we’re not stealing each other’s lunch,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.

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