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Apple Reportedly Buying Beats Electronics For $3.2 Billion
An anonymous reader writes "Multiple publications report that Apple is undertaking its biggest acquisition ever, buying Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. The deal would give Apple control over the popular 'Beats by Dre' headphones as well as a new music streaming service. Analysts suggest the headphones will open up a new series of product lines for Apple, while the streaming service will jumpstart its efforts to compete with Pandora and Spotify, as iTunes' growth slows. 'If Apple wanted to, it could certainly have built a streaming subscription service itself; the company had been floating the notion of one with label executives in recent months. But it's possible that Apple's most recent attempts to extend its music business beyond the iTunes store helped convince Cook that he was better off getting outside help.' The deal hasn't been completed yet, but a candid video of Dr. Dre was posted to Facebook in which he appeared to confirm it."
Make a good match for each other.
For overpriced technically inferior headphones to listen to compressed to hell music.
Wake me when apple gets a quality pair of headphones and at least cd quality loss-less without DRM.
No sir I dont like it.
2 fashion companies disguised as electronics companies.
In fairness to 'Beats Audio', and the good 'Dr.' Dre, the 'Beats' brand is so shamelessly pimped that it even makes it onto products that aren't capable of artificially inflated bass. HP put out a 7 inch tablet allegedly with the sonic goodness of Beats, and something that size wouldn't know what 'bass' is, much less produce any, unless its battery exploded.
Because thats all Beats has ever been. The problem apple faces is that Dr. Dre is fast becoming Dr. Grey. in his last 5-10 years hes only made small guest vocal appearances on the behalf of his label members. his most famous songs, 'nuthin but a g thang' for example came out 20 years ago. so while the turtlenecks running apple might remember him from their kegger days in college it has yet to be seen if anyone born after 2000 will even care. Beats in cellular technology and tablets is powered, from what i can guess, by Cowon (a taiwanese manufacturer of high regard for their sound chips and DSP at a very competitive price.) The headphone line originally came from Monster Cable, but now is cranked off the same assembly in mainland china that produces most every other headphone in existence.
FWIW, If i were apple, i would have marketed a competing brand based on someone like Deadmau5 or Skrillex or Knife Party or any other band actual kids listen to. As an added benefit, these artists already heavily plug and leverage Apple as a brand.
Good people go to bed earlier.
First: studio headphones are optimized for different environments than consumer headphones. This often includes sensitivity and impedance designed for professional audio levels and drivers, something that standard consumer electronics commonly will not drive properly. Try driving a 600 ohm headphone with 90dB/mW sensitivity on a common smartphone.
Second: studio headphones aren't designed to listen to _music_, they are designed for listening to _sound_. It may be a surprise to many so called "audiophiles" and other elitists that that isn't the same thing - a sound engineer have to be able to hear things clearly in order to adjust mixing and levels for the desired result. Real people listening to real music doesn't need this level of analytic detail and often don't want it. That's the reason one can buy headphones optimized for different listeners and genres - some want a balanced sound, some want voices to be somewhat clearer and many want bass to enhanced. This also includes the "audiophile" gear BTW, not that the fanatics would ever admit to that.
Third: studio headphones are most of the time overpriced for consumer uses. This is partly because the manufacturers can price them higher given the target market and partly because they are designed to tolerate abuse. Also they often are looking quite shitty.
That said Beats are at least generally overpriced shit. There are many better alternatives for much less, just go to "non-audiophile" forums and learn.
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Which is why most smartphones run Android. No denyin' I ain't lyin'
That was what you meant, right Sparky?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
An existing very well recognized brand, existing supply chains and contracts for producing "premium" headphones, and existing streaming service with deals with all major record labels and many independent labels.
Could Apple have reached the same point cheaper if they did it all themselves? Probably. Would it have been as fast? No.
An existing very well recognized brand, existing supply chains and contracts for producing "premium" headphones, and existing streaming service with deals with all major record labels and many independent labels.
Could Apple have reached the same point cheaper if they did it all themselves? Probably. Would it have been as fast? No.
I think (and from all the up voted comments, I think a lot of people here don't really get this deal) Apple doesn't care about the headphones.
Beats has a subscription audio service, and a bunch of engineers who are good at making those services work. They have existing contracts for that service, which saves Apple a lot of time they could have spent negotiating and dealing with music labels who want to see Apple brought down a peg.
The headphones are a nice added bonus for Apple (think of the profit margin on those things), and they probably inflated the buyout price, but they really have nothing to do with the big reasons for this deal.
Pandora would have been a reasonable alternative as well, but Pandora is a much more expensive buyout than Beats.