Apple Music's Jimmy Iovine Blasted for Sexist Remarks About Female Fans

Lyndsey Parker
·Editor in Chief, Yahoo Music

UPDATE: Jimmy Iovine has apologized with the following statement: “We created Apple Music to make finding the right music easier for everyone – men and women, young and old. Our new ad focuses on women, which is why I answered the way I did, but of course the same applies equally for men. I could have chosen my words better, and I apologize.”

Music business legend and Interscope Records honcho Jimmy Iovine, who now heads up Apple Music, appeared on CBS This Morning Thursday with Mary J. Blige (who has her own new radio show on Beats 1), ostensibly to promote a fun new Apple commercial starring fierce females Blige, Kerry Washington, and Taraji P. Henson. But in the process, he potentially alienated thousands of female music fans with some quite condescending generalizations.

“So I always knew that women find it very difficult at times – some women – to find music,“ Iovine said, implying that male music fans have no such problems with organic music discovery. "And [Apple Music] helps make it easier with playlists, curated by real people. They’re not made by algorithms alone. They’re made by algorithms, but with a human touch.”

The one-minute commercial, which was directed by Selma’s Ava DuVernay, starts off enjoyably and adorably, with gal pals Blige, Washington, and Henson sifting through boxes of old mixtapes and grooving to classic jams by Slick Rick, Phil Collins, and Puff Daddy. Blige raves about how easy Apple’s automated playlisting is compared to manual mixtape-making back in the day, but then Washington gushes, "It’s like you have a boyfriend that makes you a mixtape – in your laptop!”

Moments later, the slogan “INSTANT BOYFRIEND MIXTAPE SERVICE” flashes on the screen. The ad makes it unclear if Apple offers an “instant girlfriend mixtape service” for heterosexual male music-lovers.

Iovine described the commercial’s concept on CBS This Morning thusly: “I just thought of a problem: Girls are sitting around talking about boys – or complaining about boys. They need music for that, right? It’s hard to find the right music. Not everybody has the right lists, or knows a DJ or something.”

Iovine’s tone-deaf and old-fashioned remarks have, unsurprisingly, received swift retribution on Twitter from both female and male music fans. Perhaps the next time Iovine goes on TV, he should just stick to delivering rehearsed one-liners on American Idol.

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