With the commercial success of Beats headphones – which was recently bought by Apple for $3 billion – music producer Dr. Dre (Andre Young) and his business partner Jimmy Iovine are using $70 million of the $3 billion to open a school for entrepreneurs interested in getting into the entertainment industry. What they call the “dream factory” is located on the campus of USC. Dr. Dre grew up just 10 miles from the campus but he didn’t have the opportunity to go to college. He dropped out of high school and spent his college-age years DJ’ing at clubs. That’s when he formed N.W.A.
So who’s the right candidate for the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation? Iovine says: “There’s a new kid in town, and he’s brought up on an iPad from one and a half years old. But the problem with some of the companies up north [in Silicon Valley] is that they really are culturally inept. I’ve been shocked at the different species in Northern and Southern California—we don’t even speak the same language. The kid who’s going to have an advantage in the entertainment industry today is the kid who speaks both languages: technology and liberal arts. That’s what this school is about.”
USC is hosting its Fall Open-House on November 23, 2014.
