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Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

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Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#11

Post by ithought »

iambateman wrote: post #2

Beats headphones are crap, sure. And their streaming service isn't as mature as Spotify. But three billion dollars isn't about headphones or online music streaming or Dr Dre's drunken celebration. It's about growth. Apple has a chokehold on the iPod market. They've rocked the market with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and those products will be cash cows for a long time. But where is their next growth going to come from? A w…

It's interesting that Dre didn't create his music (*sampled), didn't write his lyrics and didn't come up with the idea for the headphones yet is celebrated as a genius. It was Monster's idea and then Jimmy Iovine propelled it to where it went.

Dre is a quiet, private person, who rarely tours or produces new music. The idea that he is a billionaire now from putting his name on exorbitantly expensive headphones and marketing them to people who can't really afford them, seems wrong.

Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#12

Post by k-mcgrady »

epistasis wrote: post #6

I'm not sure how much of any of this I believe until we have some word from Apple. Under the Jobs regime, such premature talk would have almost certainly spoiled the deal. We'll have to see how Cook responds to that.

The drunken celebration video featuring Dre was all the proof I needed. He wouldn't do something that stupid unless everything was agreed. They're probably waiting until the markets close to officially announce.

Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#13

Post by iambateman »

sharkweek wrote: post #8
iambateman wrote: post #2

Beats headphones are crap, sure. And their streaming service isn't as mature as Spotify. But three billion dollars isn't about headphones or online music streaming or Dr Dre's drunken celebration. It's about growth. Apple has a chokehold on the iPod market. They've rocked the market with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and those products will be cash cows for a long time. But where is their next growth going to come from? A w…

I was given a pair of Beats Studios almost two years ago, so maybe that makes it easier to say this but, speaking as a non-audiophile, they're... good? I read a lot about how terrible they are, but in my experience, they're comfortable, their noise cancellation is great at work, and I have never noticed degraded audio quality (once again, as a non-audiophile). Could someone point me to a defacto better pair of headph…

From a durability perspective, I've had my $50 Sony headphones for 3 years while my friend had $200 Beats for 6 months before the whole unit disintegrated.

Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#14

Post by jrock08 »

sharkweek wrote: post #8
iambateman wrote: post #2

Beats headphones are crap, sure. And their streaming service isn't as mature as Spotify. But three billion dollars isn't about headphones or online music streaming or Dr Dre's drunken celebration. It's about growth. Apple has a chokehold on the iPod market. They've rocked the market with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and those products will be cash cows for a long time. But where is their next growth going to come from? A w…

I was given a pair of Beats Studios almost two years ago, so maybe that makes it easier to say this but, speaking as a non-audiophile, they're... good? I read a lot about how terrible they are, but in my experience, they're comfortable, their noise cancellation is great at work, and I have never noticed degraded audio quality (once again, as a non-audiophile). Could someone point me to a defacto better pair of headph…

$70 less http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50-Professional-Mo...

$65 less http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-380-Pro-Collapsible-Profess...

Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#17

Post by rwhitman »

What Beats has in its corner, that Spotify doesn't, is a favorable relationship with the music industry, particularly the artists themselves. I've never used Beats streaming service but I was aware of it because of musicians like Trent Reznor plugging for it before it even came to market. Apparently they make deals where the artists get paid substantially more than Spotify. Beats is in a unique position to get music that other services can't, and could potentially have a monopoly on distribution of new releases from some major artists in a few years.

Thats what Apple just bought here, I'm fairly certain they could give a hoot about the technology, its the artist relationships and favorable streaming contracts that they're after.

Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#18

Post by return0 »

iambateman wrote: post #2

Beats headphones are crap, sure. And their streaming service isn't as mature as Spotify. But three billion dollars isn't about headphones or online music streaming or Dr Dre's drunken celebration. It's about growth. Apple has a chokehold on the iPod market. They've rocked the market with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and those products will be cash cows for a long time. But where is their next growth going to come from? A w…

I don't even know beats, and the way you describe them, they sound pretty mediocre. Just because the amount of money being gambled is huge, that doesn't make it genius. Apple must know something about beats that nobody else does, otherwise there is no way it's genius.

Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#19

Post by pdubs »

sharkweek wrote: post #8
iambateman wrote: post #2

Beats headphones are crap, sure. And their streaming service isn't as mature as Spotify. But three billion dollars isn't about headphones or online music streaming or Dr Dre's drunken celebration. It's about growth. Apple has a chokehold on the iPod market. They've rocked the market with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and those products will be cash cows for a long time. But where is their next growth going to come from? A w…

I was given a pair of Beats Studios almost two years ago, so maybe that makes it easier to say this but, speaking as a non-audiophile, they're... good? I read a lot about how terrible they are, but in my experience, they're comfortable, their noise cancellation is great at work, and I have never noticed degraded audio quality (once again, as a non-audiophile). Could someone point me to a defacto better pair of headph…

Sony MDR-V6/MDR-7506 http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-150-over-ear-headp...

Re: Apple set to get Beats in $3.2B deal

#20

Post by silverbax88 »

sharkweek wrote: post #8
iambateman wrote: post #2

Beats headphones are crap, sure. And their streaming service isn't as mature as Spotify. But three billion dollars isn't about headphones or online music streaming or Dr Dre's drunken celebration. It's about growth. Apple has a chokehold on the iPod market. They've rocked the market with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and those products will be cash cows for a long time. But where is their next growth going to come from? A w…

I was given a pair of Beats Studios almost two years ago, so maybe that makes it easier to say this but, speaking as a non-audiophile, they're... good? I read a lot about how terrible they are, but in my experience, they're comfortable, their noise cancellation is great at work, and I have never noticed degraded audio quality (once again, as a non-audiophile). Could someone point me to a defacto better pair of headph…

It's like this: Beats headphones are worth about $50, at the most. Noise-cancelling in an office, you barely need to pay anything, because "noise-cancellation" is achieved by the headphones picking up background noise with a small microphone and then playing a dampening noise in reaction to a sound wave. This is easy when the background noise is constant - that's why "white noise" in offices works so well. But if the noise is varied, it's impossible to predict how loud or soft the next sound wave is going to be, and headphones are always slightly behind in reaction, as it is. So that's why sometimes it seems like noise cancelling headphone work awesome, and other times the seem like any other pair of headphones.

So you're not paying for better noise cancelling when you pay more for headphones. You are paying for superior sound quality.

If you are going to drop $200 on a pair of 'good' headphones, even noise canceling, I'd suggest getting some Audio-Technica, which are superior to everything out there, even Bose. Most are less than $200.

My experience: I own a small broadcasting company.

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