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Beats Music launches

beatsmusic.com

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Re: Beats Music launches

#51

Post by w1ntermute »

ironchef wrote: post #40
w1ntermute wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and I might have quickly picked up on the fact that Beats headphones are trash, but the vast majority of consumers have no idea. I see Beats everywhere these days. A lot of seemingly intelligent people I know are using Beats. And you can't even tell them that Beats sucks, as I learned the hard way. It's not socially acceptable to inform someone that they wasted several hundred dollars, especially when they identi…

If the majority of consumers are using headphones that are a 1 to 3 on a 10 point scale and beats are, for example, a 4 or 5, then they're better for most consumers. Are they as good as some ATH-M150s? No...but the market is saturated and it's difficult for the consumer to understand what's good and what's not. Enter the marketing/brand dollar and consumers will pick what they hear about plus what sounds better than…

> If the majority of consumers are using headphones that are a 1 to 3 on a 10 point scale and beats are, for example, a 4 or 5, then they're better for most consumers.

You're not factoring in price. Beats are very expensive for mediocre quality sound. Those headphones that are a 1 to 3 (where Beats is 4 or 5) are only 1/10th the price of Beats. And for 1/3rd the price of Beats, you can get headphones that are a 7 or 8.

Re: Beats Music launches

#52

Post by brady747 »

Seems that I can't 'shuffle' play my own library by genre (or 'mood'). Which makes Beats about the thousandth company to not offer this (common sense?) option. I can do this with Google Play Music (thankfully). Personally, there are plenty of ways to get 'curated' music...make it easy for me to play what I want.

Also, spent about 15 minutes on their site and still couldn't find the web player...maybe launch day issue?

Edit: found listen.beatsmusic.com (thanks to a comment here)

Re: Beats Music launches

#53

Post by Naga »

w1ntermute wrote: post #28
TomGullen wrote: post #5

Not a fan of Beats. Tried a pair of their headphones in a shop and they sounded terrible. Build quality was flimsy as well. I think the only new thing they bring into the market is style, and that's not enough for longevity imo. This new service, $10 a month. Not quite sure what it offers over Spotify. Anyway, past experience with their product means I'm just not going to be interested in this.

You and I might have quickly picked up on the fact that Beats headphones are trash, but the vast majority of consumers have no idea. I see Beats everywhere these days. A lot of seemingly intelligent people I know are using Beats. And you can't even tell them that Beats sucks, as I learned the hard way. It's not socially acceptable to inform someone that they wasted several hundred dollars, especially when they identi…

You assume that sound quality is the only thing that matters in a pair of headphones. A lot of people care more about how they look and the branding then the sound, which is totally fine. I work in a small tech store and I've convinced people to buy better headphones to have them come back a few days later and exchanging them for Beats. Yes, they sound horrible, but different people have different needs and desires. It's not wasted money if they enjoy them, which I believe to a large part people do. Who are we to tell people they should buy headphones they don't want?

Branding and design is a legitimate category for a company to compete in and the people behind the headphones are certainly successful in it. They recognized that most people don't really care how they sound because the vast majority of people are not audiophiles and just want to look cool.

Re: Beats Music launches

#54

Post by warfangle »

phren0logy wrote: post #37

I am (was?) a fairly happy MOG subscriber. Some thoughts: 1. No way to transfer my MOG playlists and favorite bands/songs? That sucks. 2. Tried to sign in through the AT&T family plan for 90-day free trial. Got a text with a code, which AT&T says was accepted, and Beats says was not. ??? 3. No web-only option for $5/month. I suppose that was too much to hope for. 4. No information about how the 5-person family plan w…

The AT&T trial ($15/mo) .. once you complete the trial, do you begin paying Beats? Or AT&T? Is it included on your data plan, or does it supersede? This whole thing strikes me as ... shady. But everything about the Beats brand strikes me as shady.

Re: Beats Music launches

#55

Post by warfangle »

egeozcan wrote: post #31
TomGullen wrote: post #5

Not a fan of Beats. Tried a pair of their headphones in a shop and they sounded terrible. Build quality was flimsy as well. I think the only new thing they bring into the market is style, and that's not enough for longevity imo. This new service, $10 a month. Not quite sure what it offers over Spotify. Anyway, past experience with their product means I'm just not going to be interested in this.

I own a pair (got them as a present) and didn't sell them just to make people listen to them and compare them to my other headphones (I'm not joking). I hate them (because of the false marketing first, and the low quality product second) and also most people realize at the 10th second of the music that they're not good at all. But for some, in a strange way, they sound excellent. I just don't get it. Maybe humans dev…

Many people think more bass == better sound. Go figure.

Re: Beats Music launches

#56

Post by aaronmoodie »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #20

I've been using this for the last 4 or 5 hours. I'm not in the US but have a dormant US iTunes Account so I was able to download it through that. Design: Really slick. I like the Rdio app but recently it's been getting a bit confusing. I've always hated the Spotify app even though I was a paying customer since it first arrived in the UK. The Beats app admittedly has a lot going on but I found it pretty easy to naviga…

>> "Overall I think they have two things up on everyone else: design and playlists. On Spotify and Rdio finding good playlists is difficult. Spotify has been getting better at this but it isn't great yet. Beats seems to have spent a lot of time crafting A LOT of really great playlists and they seem to be where I'm spending most of my time. The human curation thing seems to have worked."

Totally agree. Beats has taken the best of both of Rdio and Spotify, and along with the human curation, built a pretty solid product.

The web interface leaves a lot to be desired at this point, but looking forward to seeing what they come up with here.

Re: Beats Music launches

#57

Post by vinceguidry »

w1ntermute wrote: post #51
ironchef wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the majority of consumers are using headphones that are a 1 to 3 on a 10 point scale and beats are, for example, a 4 or 5, then they're better for most consumers. Are they as good as some ATH-M150s? No...but the market is saturated and it's difficult for the consumer to understand what's good and what's not. Enter the marketing/brand dollar and consumers will pick what they hear about plus what sounds better than…

> If the majority of consumers are using headphones that are a 1 to 3 on a 10 point scale and beats are, for example, a 4 or 5, then they're better for most consumers. You're not factoring in price. Beats are very expensive for mediocre quality sound. Those headphones that are a 1 to 3 (where Beats is 4 or 5) are only 1/10th the price of Beats. And for 1/3rd the price of Beats, you can get headphones that are a 7 or…

For Beats' target market, they don't factor in price either.

When I personally go to buy stuff, price is third or fourth down on my list of concerns.

I've bought two pairs of over-the-ear headphones in the past few months, and sent them both back. I was shopping on price/value, but the headphones I was getting were way too loud for an office environment.

For whatever reason, whenever I'm looking for decent headphones, nobody indicates whether I'll be broadcasting what I'm listening to to my workmates or not. Not the manufacturer, not the reviewers. Giant pain in the ass. It might not be long before I'd be willing to shell out the cash for Beats just to not have to fuck with it anymore.

Re: Beats Music launches

#58

Post by ericd »

vinceguidry wrote: post #57
w1ntermute wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the majority of consumers are using headphones that are a 1 to 3 on a 10 point scale and beats are, for example, a 4 or 5, then they're better for most consumers. You're not factoring in price. Beats are very expensive for mediocre quality sound. Those headphones that are a 1 to 3 (where Beats is 4 or 5) are only 1/10th the price of Beats. And for 1/3rd the price of Beats, you can get headphones that are a 7 or…

For Beats' target market, they don't factor in price either. When I personally go to buy stuff, price is third or fourth down on my list of concerns. I've bought two pairs of over-the-ear headphones in the past few months, and sent them both back. I was shopping on price/value, but the headphones I was getting were way too loud for an office environment. For whatever reason, whenever I'm looking for decent headphones…

Were you ordering closed over ears? If not, try sticking to those, and generally ones that reviewers say offer good isolation (in-ears like Shures are great for this).

Re: Beats Music launches

#59

Post by ska »

jfoutz wrote: post #44
TomGullen wrote: post #5

Not a fan of Beats. Tried a pair of their headphones in a shop and they sounded terrible. Build quality was flimsy as well. I think the only new thing they bring into the market is style, and that's not enough for longevity imo. This new service, $10 a month. Not quite sure what it offers over Spotify. Anyway, past experience with their product means I'm just not going to be interested in this.

They have(had?) a microphone like the apple earbuds. A couple years ago, being able to take a call was pretty important. I couldn't find any similar headphones with the integrated mic, so those are what i got.

Weren't Senn momentums available at that time?

Re: Beats Music launches

#60

Post by pla3rhat3r »

The biggest issue I have with Beats (or any streaming music service for that matter) is that it's just curating existing music. Even their tagline includes the word "curating." This goes to the heart of what's wrong with the entire music industry. It seems that the industry is happy with keeping things the way they are instead of finding ways to be prolific. Curating what we already have is not going to push the music industry forward. Hopefully Beats is different than other music services and actually pays the bands. If not, who gives a shit about another service trying to separate us from our money?
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