Apple Music execs Jimmy Iovine & Dr. Dre break ground on new USC academy

The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation will offer courses in art and design, communication, engineering, computer science, and business and venture management, ABC 7 said. The aim is an interdiscplinary approach, and Iovine invoked Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' famous maxim about bridging "technology and liberal arts."

The academy will measure about 10,000 square feet, and should officially open in fall 2019. Some classes and programs are already operating in other USC buildings, and 114 students are expected to graduate in May 2018.

Iovine and Young — the latter better known as rapper and producer Dr. Dre — donated $70 million towards the academy in 2013, a year before Beats was bought by Apple in a deal worth $3 billion.

Apple has remained vague about what Iovine and Young are responsible for at Apple Music, which recently hit 30 million subscribers. Both do have deep industry connections, particularly Iovine, who helped engineer and produce artists like Bruce Springsteen, and co-founded Interscope Records in 1990. Interscope distributed material by Death Row Records, co-founded by Young.