In an effort clearly designed to make Auto-Tune even better than it already is (though I’m not sure if that’s possible), Dr. Dre has teamed up with Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine and and computer maker Hewlett-Packard. The goal, according to CNET, is to “save digital music.”

The plan goes something like this: HP will soon release premium-priced laptops, headsets, and software featuring the “Beats by Dr. Dre” brand sometime this fall. This in turn will allow Dre and Iovine to “reconstruct the entire ‘digital music ecosystem’ from the sound file to the computer.”

“We have to fix the entire chain,” Iovine told CNET. “Our position is to go to all the sources and try to improve sound and educate people… We can’t put anything weak in the line. Whoever puts out things that sound bad shouldn’t be as cool as something that sounds great.”

If all goes as hoped, Iovine hopes these actions are the first steps to improving the current state of the music industry.

“The record business committed many, many mistakes in the last 10 years, and I’m right in there, Iovine said.” One of them was letting its product get degraded. It’s one thing to let it get stolen, it’s another to allow it to be degraded because then you really don’t have a chance… video games and TV quality are getting better and the quality of our work is getting lower. If that happens, then music will become disposable. That’s something we can fix.”

No word on when this fix will be coming, but it will likely be sometime before Dre’s release of Detox… though that’s not saying much.

TAGGED AS: Dr. Dre