Dr. Dre & Jimmy Iovine Give 70M To USC For Music Academy

Legendary producer Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine have teamed to donate $70 million to the Univeristy of Southern California to establish a music academy that will provide students with the education and resources necessary to build careers in the rapidly changing music industry. The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation will open at the university in fall of 2014, with an inaugural class of twenty-five students. According to the LA Times, the program will consist of the following:

The four-year program will feature four core curriculum areas: arts and entrepreneurship; technology, design and marketability; concept and business platform; and creating a prototype. It aims to foster entrepreneurship that brings students' entertainment, technology and business skills into play. Instruction will involve engineering, computer science, fine arts, graphic design, business and leadership training.

A portion of the founding donation from Dre and Jimmy Iovine will be put toward construction of the facilities that will house the academy. Both donors began as in-demand producers before branching into other avenues of the business to varying degrees. Coming full circle, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine have been the brains and production braun behind the wildly popular Beats headphone brand - a shrewd business move that has netted them a multi-million dollar product line and a place in studios across the world. Remove the headphones and they still stand atop their respective empires as major players in the music industry. Compelled to share their good fortune, they make this donation in the interest of nurturing the future music executives of the world.

Spotted at LAT