Right as Apple confirmed the official purchase of Beats By Dre on Wednesday, Interscope’s Jimmy Iovine announced that he would be stepping down from the label. Iovine has served as Chairman and CEO of Interscope for the past 25 years, and will leave his duties behind to 36 year old John Janick.
Janick, who started his own very successful indie label Fueled By Ramen in 1996, has had the benefit of working under Iovine for the past two years, as he was groomed to succeed the producer who co-founded the most successful label start-up record label of the last 25 years.
In a statement, Iovine noted, “John Janick has exactly what it takes to lead Interscope Geffen A&M: he started his own label, he understands the art of making records and the unique dynamic between a record label and artist, as well as the enormous responsibility that comes with representing one of the greatest artist rosters ever assembled.”
In addition to his hand-picked successor, Iovine also leaves behind one of the “most stable label management teams in the industry,” says another UMG executive. After all of these years, Interscope still has vice chairman Steve Berman, president of promotion Brenda Romano and a bunch of senior promo executives who have been there forever.”
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