Tech bubble you say? Inevitable crash you say?
In the photo accompanying the post, the caption identifies Dr. Dre as “rapper Dr. Dre.” In this context (and really, for quite some time) Dre’s primary successes have been as an electronics entrepreneur, not as a rapper. Sure, picking nits, but he didn’t just get to sell a 3 billion dollar company on the strength of his rhyming skills - give the man credit for what he’s accomplished. But I’m sure if he’s irked by being called a “rapper” in this context, he’ll cry all the way to the bank…
Actually, I see my beef is with the NY Times caption, not with BoingBoing.
So… Aside from the branding, is there anything particularly new, innovative, or desirable about Beats headphones? I figured Apple was making enough of a killing with its tiny white earbuds.
A penny for Monster Cable’s thoughts right now…
From what I’ve heard they didn’t buy Beats for the headphones as much as the streaming service, and in particular the streaming service’s customers. Apple’s own streaming service has had a somewhat lackluster reception thus far and they’re looking to buy out a successful competitor instead of trying to make their own service more desirable.
The headphones are just a side business, but apparently really profitable on their own so Apple is likely to make their money back reasonably quickly as long as they don’t screw it up too much.
I think you’ll need $79.95 for their thoughts.
It was Monster’s engineering plus Beats branding got Beats off the ground. Monster pretty much surrendered all rights to the technology - a contract job, essentially.
Yeah I would think he’s just acting in a “Music Executive” role in this deal. I doubt they were looking for his emcee skills to shine…
The headphones are actually average to flat out poor (depending on who you talk to), and probably not even worth 1/4 of what they charge for them. But they sell like hotcakes based on brand hipness alone. It’s a pretty good marketing scam they pulled.
Remember they were originally made by Monster.
So what’s new?
I haven’t read this particular article (stupid Times website), but I find it funny nobody has mentioned how Beats were partnered with HP before. My current HP comp and the Toutchpad tablet^ I have both have Beats branding and I guess hardware, but something tells me it’s just rebranded generic. (I didn’t mean to go for Beats stuff, the tablet was a gift and the comp was cheap and still had Win7, otherwise this is my feelings about the headphones)
^RIP webOS, you had so much potential
This is Apple acting like HP - buying instead of creating.
This time it’s different.
Think Different
I would never have thought the company that owns iTunes wouldn’t be able to put together a decent streaming service.
In some ways it is inevitable. A streaming service would be viewed as a direct conflict with the core business of selling music and the pressure would be to hobble it to avoid undermining the other part of the company.
This happens a lot. It’s why book publishers can never make a good eReader. Why music companies can’t make MP3 players. Why movie studios can’t make good video streaming services. This is why businesses die off whenever there is a disruptive technology, they can’t adopt it without hurting their existing business, even if that business is already doomed.
To shreds you say?
