As co-founders of Beats headphones, Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine are expected to be announced as executives with Apple following the consumer tech giant’s purchase of the headphone maker for US$3.2bn.
In what would appear to show how the worlds of music stars and leaders in the tech industry are blurring, the news of Dre’s and Iovine’s appointment is expected to be announced during Apple’s upcoming Developers’ Conference this June.
According to Billboard, Iovine in particular will be given responsibility to oversee Apple’s music strategy in terms of dealing with artists and producers as the look to bolster iTunes in the face of increasing competition from music streaming sites like Spotify and Pandora.
According to Billboard’s figures, iTunes music sales have decreased by 13pc in the first quarter of this year, despite its continued dominance of 70pc of the online download sales of music.
The origin of the original deal between the two companies was believed to be linked to Apple wanting to avail of Beats’ own music streaming service that was growing in popularity with users, along with the hardware of its range of headphones.
Dre will seemingly play the lesser role of the two, but is expected to make a significant windfall from the deal which he made very clear in his impromptu video of him celebrating with friends and artists from his recording studio that has subsequently been taken down from his Facebook page.
