Jimmy Iovine Quotes

Putting out the things that I like best hasn't been the easiest way to run a label, and it still isn't because it requires finding an audience for each record.

The beauty of having a producer is that you have someone who says, You're finished.

I do a lot of collaborations and productions, whether it's Switch or Steve Aoki or No ID or Will Smith or No Doubt - I always like to collaborate and be a quality control person for the people 'cause I have my own taste in music and bring that to other peoples' brands and help them learn a little bit.

I want to take Justin Bieber for a month and just lock him up in a cage where we sit and make music. He's one of the most successful people in the world, but his music could be so much tighter.

I like to make records sound good. I'm more like a reducer than a producer. If an artist cannot produce themselves, what's the point?

We have the insight and the tools to identify and bring to fruition the dormant talent that our artists possess. Favored Nations will be branded as the home base for inspired musical talent.

Most of the time when people work with an artist, they don't give them what they need for the future, they give them what their last album sounded like. So it's like, 'Oh, One Republic needs a song, why don't we send them 10 that sound like 'Apologize?'

All through the kind of late '80s and '90s, every A&R record company man was saying, 'Now what we want is another record like 'Back in the High Life.' And, of course, that's not the way to make music at all. That's the tail wagging the dog.

The cool thing about G.O.O.D. Music is it's a bunch of great ideas, and I'm one of those ideas.

With Dr. Dre, he's a perfectionist. A lot of people ask why 'Detox' is taking so long. It's because Dre is somebody that is trying to top what he's done. Will he do it? I don't know if he ever will, but I respect that he's trying to do so. You have to wait for a masterpiece.

I have learned that while your putting your record together you can get so caught up in making what you want that you forget what you wanted in the first place.

I think all musicians and producers, they know the real goal is to come up with a record that is entertaining and not boring, that's the goal. I think if everyone agrees that that's the goal then it doesn't matter who's the band and it doesn't matter who's the producer. It just means that that you try to realise the ambition no matter what the situation is or who the people are.

I never produce a song, whether writing it or making a beat, and give it a wack visual or wack performance. I'm like a trifecta.

I struggled with working with producers because no one openly wanted to give me a chance to rap on their beats. That's just honest talk. No one really wanted to take that risk.

Whether I'm on a major or an indie, I don't think this is important, but at the same time I do.

You should be able to deliver what the artist you're working with wants.

I never write a song before I get the track because I just feel that I have to make a marriage with that track with my raps. And if it's something that's already there, it ain't gone really fit, I don't think.

Yeah, we're definitely not opposed to working with famous vocalists, but we really want to make sure that it's all about the sound of the voice and how appropriate it is for the song, and not kind of 'getting together with people just for the sake of it' kind of thing.

There are a lot of classic Goapele tracks that are obviously me. And I'm also just trying to keep evolving and grow as an artist. I've always had a wish list of producers I wanted to work with. I just wait until the feeling is mutual and go into the studio to see what we can come up with.

We actually make all of our own music videos. Often we come up with the visual concepts at the same time as writing the music.

As songwriters, we can go in and write for other artists in a time where you aren't necessarily feeling inspired for yourself.

I always want to make my records sound great so they'll stand the test of time, and that takes a lot of work.

Manny Smith & Interscope CEO John Janick understand me and my vision for myself and also my label. Interscope gave me the opportunity to take over the game completely, and that's what I'm going to do.

When I work with Dre, he usually does more than 100 records and then picks his favorites.

We didn't want to be tied to that damn teenybopper market. We tried to convince our record company that we could do more than silly AM hits, but they wouldn't listen.