Jimmy Iovine: original TV series and movies part of Apple Music pop cultural experience

The Wall Street Journal thinks Apple wants to buy rights to original television shows and movies as another way of enticing users into choosing Apple Music over competitors like Spotify and Pandora. Monday, The Hollywood Reported published an interview with Apple executive Jimmy Iovine, who said that adding original video content to the music-streaming service is part of the plan to turn Apple Music into a pop cultural phenomenon.

Here’s the full quote:

At Apple Music, what we’re trying to create is an entire cultural, pop cultural experience, and that happens to include audio and video. If South Park walks into my office, I am not going to say you’re not musicians, you know? We’re going to do whatever hits popular culture smack on the nose.

We’re going to try.

Enriching Apple Music with scripted TV shows and original movies should help the service better compete with the likes of Spotify and Pandora, which are largely free.

“We’re fighting ‘free.’ So a simple utility where, ‘here’s all the songs, here’s all the music, give me $10 and we’re cool,’ is not going to scale,” said Iovine.

Iovine made the comment on Saturday at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, where he promoted his upcoming HBO documentary titled “The Defiant Ones,” which centers on his relationship and partnership with Dr. Dre.

Apple recently aired its first-ever documentary on Apple Music about Roland’s popular drum machine. Aside from its upcoming Carpool Karaoke show, based on the popular “Late, Late Show” segment from James Corden and featuring a different host every episode, Apple is also working on additional video content like a six-episode dark drama starring Dr. Dre, an unscripted reality show focused on apps and more.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter