A Female Music Fan Wants a Word with Apple’s Jimmy Iovine

There was an Internet dust-up last week when producer and Apple Music dude Jimmy Iovine opined that women found it hard to discover music, statement for which he apologized after he was burned by the Internet’s wrath.

Amber Healy, a writer for sister website Geeks&Beats, was most annoyed with Jim and would like to have a word.

Poor Jimmy Iovine. He really stepped in it this week, didn’t he?

By now, it’s been widely reported that he made an unfortunate statement in talking about a new commercial for his Apple Music service, saying flat out that sometimes, some women—he was considerate enough to say some, to his credit—might find it “difficult” to find new music. Later, realizing his mistake or after reading some of the backlash against his, shall we say, comments of an unfortunate nature, Mr. Iovine said he misspoke, he made a poor choice in language, that both men and women sometimes could maybe find it less than easy to find new music.

Ok. Let’s take a step back.

Firstly, Mr. Iovine has made a career in the music industry, finding new artists, signing them to his previous label, Interscope, helping to make and break trends, creating and crushing stars. He also has an exciting new opportunity through his newest endeavor, Apple Music, of introducing even more people to even more music.

A few questions to Mr. Iovine, should he happen across our humble little website:

• Why do women have more difficulty finding new music? Do you have anything to back that up, or were you just speaking extemporaneously?
• Why is it easier, as you imply, for men to find new music? Do they have some kind of tool or genetic enhancement that helps them sniff out new talent?
• If you’re really concerned about this—conceding, of course, that you didn’t say that you were concerned, only that the playlist feature on Apple Music would make it easier—what are you doing to eliminate the barriers to this discovery? Is it focused solely on Apple Music, or do you have other developments in the works?

Read Amber’s entire column here.