Hipgnosis Songs Fund, a British Guernsey-registered music IP investment and song management company, has acquired 100% ownership of veteran music producer Jimmy Iovine’s music catalog. The longtime business partner to Dr. Dre produced 259 songs over the lifespan of his career, in which Hipgnosis will receive in the deal.
An amount was not disclosed in the acquisition, however, Iovine will commit proceeds from the catalog sale to building a USC Iovine and Young Academy related high school in South Central Los Angeles.
“While barely in my teens, I noticed that so many of my favorite albums had one name in common,” Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis said in a statement. “The best albums by John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith all had Jimmy Iovine on them,” Mercuriadis said in a statement. “His incomparable success with Interscope and Beats means that he would never have to make a deal for money again, but leave it to Jimmy to figure out the most efficient way possible to use his producer royalties to build a best-in-class high school in the inner city and once again make a massive difference, as he has throughout his life.”
Hipgnosis, confounded by Mercuriadis and Nile Rodgers in 2018, recently purchased a stake or ownership in the music catalogs of Rick James, No I.D., and RZA. Although listed on the Internet, the Hipgnosis’ website is exclusively available to certain jurisdictions, excluding U.S. residents from entry.
Born in Brooklyn in 1953, Iovine started his career as a studio engineer, working on albums for the likes of Meat Loaf and Bruce Springsteen. He would make a career breakthrough in 1978 when he lended his skills to the production of Patti Smith’s Easter.
In the following year, Iovine would develop a partnership with the legendary Tom Petty. The collaboration would produce Damn The Torpedos, Hard Promises (1981), and Long After Dark (1982). After working with a sleight of pop and rock acts, Iovine became co-founder of Interscope Records, recruiting acts such as Tracy Chapman, No Doubt and Blackstreet in the 1990s.
Today, Interscope has a roster that includes some of the biggest up-and-coming acts in the hip hop industry, including DaBaby, Tokyo’s Revenge, Summer Walker, Smokepurpp, Mustard, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Durk, K Camp, J.I. The Prince of N.Y, and the late Juice WRLD.
With his partner, Dr. Dre, Iovine founded the USC Iovine and Young Academy and developed Beats Electronics, parlaying the innovation into a billion dollar deal with Apple Music.
In 2020, Iovine and e-commerce company NTWRK led a $40 million round of funding for the “most valuable,” multi-million dollar esports company, FaZe Clan. Iovine was listed as the No. 1 richest person in Hollywood with a net worth over $1 billion in 2015.
