251–260 of 351 posts
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I think all streaming services have a form of this, heck even iTunes store has celebrity curated and Genius.
> all streaming services have a form of this ... Quality differs.
The meat of this deal isn't likely the streaming service. Beats Music had only 111,000 subscribers as of March [1]. Compare that to Spotify's 10 million paying subscribers, 30 million non-paying users, and $4 billion valuation. The deal's financial logic is driven by Beats's $1.3 billion business (in 2013) of selling high-priced headphones. Given Apple's P/E ratio of 14.9x earnings [2], the acquisition would make sen…
Your argument makes sense, but it kind of falls apart when you consider that Beats aren't actually good headphones, to the point where The Wirecutter actually did an article[1] where they listed all the various Beats products and then provided examples of better deals (some of them with significantly better quality at half the price). I don't understand why Apple would buy a headphone company that makes pretty but lo…
You can make the best headphones in the World but if another company controls 40% of the market - they are the one that's going to get bought for billions of dollars, not you.
Is music even still important to Apple? The iPod is in a longterm decline. Low margin music streaming has replaced purchased mp3s. I think music has changed from the main event in the Apple ecosystem to a minor attraction. It seems like Apple is looking backwards and defensively, not forward and offensively on this one.
It might be hard for someone with an autism-spectrum order to understand, but normals really love music. It's part of being a human being. So yes, Music is extremely important. For anyone.
My 3 billion dollar theory is that they want to shut it down to make room for their own high-end headphones.
The most interesting reveal from Tim Cook's quote is that he only mentions the music service and the talent, not the headphones. That's super interesting. It basically means Apple looked at this like a typical Apple aquihire / component technology purchase (of the service), that just happened to have a multi-billion dollar profitable accessories business attached to it. That makes it a very unique kind of deal.
2. The service has a tiny userbase, and doesn't have any technology apple does not.
Apple will be producing the headphones now and Apple will be building the streaming service. So, IMHO, this is a brand purchase, plain and simple. There's nothing else left. Tim Cook was dissembling because he didn't want to admit he just bought the rights to a name.
Honest question: is there a statute of limitations on what the tech world will tolerate with regards to misogynistic behavior (or bad behavior in general)? Or do people just pick and choose what they want to fight? I ask because everyone rallied behind RadiumOne's CEO being canned after he beat up his girlfriend [0]. Similar with the Mozilla CEO (granted, the offense was different ... but it's interesting to point ou…
I personally once thought that we should ban gay marriage. As I grew up and gained more understanding about homosexuality my view totally changed. I think we definitely have to give people the chance to change. I would guess that most of the people here on HackerNews grew up thinking that homosexuality was a choice and some sort of perversion. However, I would bet that most of us have changed our views as we have either accepted who we are or have had friends that were gay help our understanding grow.
As far as Dr Dre, I had never listened to his music or really followed him in the news. I would probably error on the side of a lot of the other comments, that we should give him a break because it appears that he has changed. My two cents.
Honest question: is there a statute of limitations on what the tech world will tolerate with regards to misogynistic behavior (or bad behavior in general)? Or do people just pick and choose what they want to fight? I ask because everyone rallied behind RadiumOne's CEO being canned after he beat up his girlfriend [0]. Similar with the Mozilla CEO (granted, the offense was different ... but it's interesting to point ou…
Sad this is the top comment in this page. Is feminism really the most important issue for a hacker community?
If you're young you probably don't know what I mean.
No over analysis of this reply please, my eyes might not come down again if I keep doing it. :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> reinvented the higher-end headphone marke There's zero high-endness about Beats headphones. They're all right (at least if they were priced around 30% of their current price), but really, they don't sound particularly good.
Surely this could be said about many other high-end fashion type brands. Expensive Nike trainers aren't worth what they sell for, most designer handbags are worth a fraction of what they sell for. These items also don't have any real technical merit to justify the price.
The most interesting reveal from Tim Cook's quote is that he only mentions the music service and the talent, not the headphones. That's super interesting. It basically means Apple looked at this like a typical Apple aquihire / component technology purchase (of the service), that just happened to have a multi-billion dollar profitable accessories business attached to it. That makes it a very unique kind of deal.
Apple redefined the mp3 player market, the ultraportable laptop market, the smartphone market, the tablet market, and now they're buying a company that reinvented the higher-end headphone market. Is it smart of a brand that has traditionally created their own iconic images to buy another cultural icon for $3 billion? I don't think so. Maybe this gets used a lot, but would Steve Jobs have done this? Or would he have c…
I totally agree. The question I ask is whether Beats is the kind of headphone that Steve Jobs would personally design and use. The "steve" test seems to guide everything else they build, so why not extend to headphones. The way I see it, the answer seems to be "no." The headphones are bulky, the logo gaudy - just not Steve. The advertising - think of the superbowl ads that rankled Seattle fans - just not really Apple…
Where did you get this from?