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“Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

audiosciencereview.com

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Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#11

Post by bo1024 »

bloodyplonker22 wrote: post #5
soared wrote: post #2

Articles like these make me appreciate my business degree, because this list is the basics of any business. 30% COGS, high shipping costs, outsourced manufacturing, big box focusing on low end market, etc is all very normal for almost any industry.

I don't mean to be rude, but you don't need a business degree to understand the very basic things that you mentioned. I am fairly sure that most people using Hacker News understand those simple concepts in business.

I don’t have a business degree and yeah, I think I comprehend what was written, but before reading it I wouldn’t have guessed at much of it, a lot of my intuition or assumptions would have been wrong.

More generally, sure, you never “need” an X degree to understand X, but most people won’t have spent the time learning X on their own unless they have an X degree.

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#12

Post by [deleted] »

bloodyplonker22 wrote: post #5
soared wrote: post #2

Articles like these make me appreciate my business degree, because this list is the basics of any business. 30% COGS, high shipping costs, outsourced manufacturing, big box focusing on low end market, etc is all very normal for almost any industry.

I don't mean to be rude, but you don't need a business degree to understand the very basic things that you mentioned. I am fairly sure that most people using Hacker News understand those simple concepts in business.

[deleted]

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#13

Post by edrxty »

crims0n wrote: post #7
soared wrote: post #2

Articles like these make me appreciate my business degree, because this list is the basics of any business. 30% COGS, high shipping costs, outsourced manufacturing, big box focusing on low end market, etc is all very normal for almost any industry.

30% COGS surprised me… I always estimated it would have been around 50%. Learned something new.

You can do better if you're selling the stuff yourself, but that follows a bathtub curve with totally bespoke on one end and Apple on the other. It seems it becomes a struggle to keep up sales unless you're on Amazon and stacked on big box retailer shelves.

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#14

Post by yalogin »

This post answered the one question that I couldn’t find answer for many years, that is why he did Dr.Dre get into the beats business or the other way why would the founders include Dr.Dre

Now I understand that the equipment manufacturing is already commoditized and so the onus is fully on marketing and so he provides a great value.

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#15

Post by lmm »

crims0n wrote: post #7
soared wrote: post #2

Articles like these make me appreciate my business degree, because this list is the basics of any business. 30% COGS, high shipping costs, outsourced manufacturing, big box focusing on low end market, etc is all very normal for almost any industry.

30% COGS surprised me… I always estimated it would have been around 50%. Learned something new.

I already knew the rule of thumb that a retail store needs 50% markup, so 30% seems reasonable in that context (indeed I'd've guessed 25%).

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#16

Post by tdeck »

crims0n wrote: post #7
soared wrote: post #2

Articles like these make me appreciate my business degree, because this list is the basics of any business. 30% COGS, high shipping costs, outsourced manufacturing, big box focusing on low end market, etc is all very normal for almost any industry.

30% COGS surprised me… I always estimated it would have been around 50%. Learned something new.

There is an excellent video about designing electronic products that breaks this down in more detail:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UwrkfHadeQQ

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#17

Post by yewenjie »

soared wrote: post #2

Articles like these make me appreciate my business degree, because this list is the basics of any business. 30% COGS, high shipping costs, outsourced manufacturing, big box focusing on low end market, etc is all very normal for almost any industry.

Is there some online course I can take to learn the crux of a business degree?

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#18

Post by m463 »

What I'd like as a consumer is the antidote to this.

I saw something like this trying to get a replacement plumbing fitting at my parent's house a few years back. The local hardware store with the high-quality stuff had been closed down by the big-box stores. Perusing the possibilities at lowes and home depot showed plastic and fake chrome when I would have paid extra for high quality brass or even metal. It was just gone.

In consumer audio, I fear that same - maybe we need some way to navigate away from the 7-eleven iphone headphones, from the bose/beats continuum, and to maybe find something like the moondrop blessing2.

is it possible?

EDIT: I do like schiit audio https://schiit.com

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#19

Post by tdeck »

bloodyplonker22 wrote: post #5
soared wrote: post #2

Articles like these make me appreciate my business degree, because this list is the basics of any business. 30% COGS, high shipping costs, outsourced manufacturing, big box focusing on low end market, etc is all very normal for almost any industry.

I don't mean to be rude, but you don't need a business degree to understand the very basic things that you mentioned. I am fairly sure that most people using Hacker News understand those simple concepts in business.

I think OP is saying that they're gaining a new appreciation for the fundamentals they learned which aren't necessarily common knowledge. Not that those fundamentals are so sophisticated that you need a degree to grasp them.

Re: “Secrets” about the consumer audio business you may find interesting

#20

Post by Nition »

yalogin wrote: post #14

This post answered the one question that I couldn’t find answer for many years, that is why he did Dr.Dre get into the beats business or the other way why would the founders include Dr.Dre Now I understand that the equipment manufacturing is already commoditized and so the onus is fully on marketing and so he provides a great value.

Reminds me of Intel hiring will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas as Director Of Creative Innovation.
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