Beats Acquisition Boosting Apple's 'Coolness' Factor Among Young Consumers

[JAT]

Some may hate hip-hop and keep listening to Peter Frampton between replacements of vinyl player needles but others are moving on.

I'm reasonably sure that the number of people that actually fit into both of those is a minuscule amount. But, nice try at making up a stereotype.

I'm also reasonably sure that it is "ok" to "hate hip-hop". Otherwise, I must be some sort of horrible person.

 

[flat five]

Bears repeating
Image

i'm not sure why you keep posting that picture.. did dr.dre write that verse or did eminem? dre is only a cowriter in that he may write some of his own lyrics.. slim writes all his stuff.. in fact, he ghost writes for dre sometimes.
fwiw, dr.dre and eminem aren't the same person.


regardless of that which should be obvious.. read this recent_ish interview by rolling stone with eminem:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...ds-to-rap-god-homophobia-accusations-20131104

By Brian Hiatt
November 4, 2013 11:25 AM ET
In the years since the initial uproar over the use of anti-gay slurs on his first two albums, Eminem has performed with and befriended Elton John, endorsed gay marriage and repeatedly told interviewers that he doesn't actually have any problem with gay people. But he continues to sprinkle his lyrics with language that's not hard to construe as homophobic. In this excerpt from his upcoming Rolling Stone cover story, due November 22nd, Eminem defends his much-criticized use of slurs in the single "Rap God."


You've made it clear again and again that you don't actually have a problem with gay people. So why, in 2013, use "******" on that song? Why use "gay-looking" as an insult?
I don't know how to say this without saying it how I've said it a million times. But that word, those kind of words, when I came up battle-rappin' or whatever, I never really equated those words . . .

To actually mean "homosexual"?
Yeah. It was more like calling someone a bitch or a punk or *******. So that word was just thrown around so freely back then. It goes back to that battle, back and forth in my head, of wanting to feel free to say what I want to say, and then [worrying about] what may or may not affect people. And, not saying it's wrong or it's right, but at this point in my career – man, I say so much **** that's tongue-in-cheek. I poke fun at other people, myself. But the real me sitting here right now talking to you has no issues with gay, straight, transgender, at all. I'm glad we live in a time where it's really starting to feel like people can live their lives and express themselves. And I don't know how else to say this, I still look at myself the same way that I did when I was battling and broke.

I kind of thought you were doing it because when you're rapping as Slim Shady, part of your mission is to annoy people.
Well, look, I've been doing this **** for, what, 14 years now? And I think people know my personal stance on things and the personas that I create in my music. And if someone doesn't understand that by now, I don't think there's anything I can do to change their mind about it.

now, imagine asking those same type of questions to the westboro people.. do you think their tone/responses are going to be similar or pretty much completely opposite?
do you really feel you're making an equal comparison by placing dr.dre beside eminem who is then placed beside a true bigot?.. then further placing dre next to apple as if somehow now apple has a connection to westboro church.

i get it that you're not a fan of dre.. and that that would make it much more easy to purposely strew things and force connections.. but at least be aware that you're doing it.

 

[jlabute]

easy to make headphones?

I bet good money that an acquisition like that of Beats is in Steve's playbook and they are following this to keep with the current youth generation.

Some may hate hip-hop and keep listening to Peter Frampton between replacements of vinyl player needles but others are moving on.

I believe headphones/earbuds are quite complicated pieces of audio technology especially if you are competing against Shure, Klipsch, Etymotic, Sennheizer. Starting from scratch it would take Apple years to have their own that could begin to complete. Even with the purchase of Beats it does not put them in the same category. Companies that specialize in ear-piece audio have been doing so for decades and occassionally have a winning product. Needless to say, the typical Apple/Beats ear-buds are fairly low fidelity IMO. I would consider looking for something in the > $200 range if you are a HD lover. If we were to get Beats ear-buds with an iPhone6 it would at least be an improvement over the China Apple ear-buds.

 

[Orlandoech]

i'm not sure why you keep posting that picture.. did dr.dre write that verse or did eminem? dre is only a cowriter in that he may write some of his own lyrics.. slim writes all his stuff.. in fact, he ghost writes for dre sometimes.
fwiw, dr.dre and eminem aren't the same person.


regardless of that which should be obvious.. read this recent_ish interview by rolling stone with eminem:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...ds-to-rap-god-homophobia-accusations-20131104



now, imagine asking those same type of questions to the westboro people.. do you think their tone/responses are going to be similar or pretty much completely opposite?
do you really feel you're making an equal comparison by placing dr.dre beside eminem who is then placed beside a true bigot?.. then further placing dre next to apple as if somehow now apple has a connection to westboro church.

i get it that you're not a fan of dre.. and that that would make it much more easy to purposely strew things and force connections.. but at least be aware that you're doing it.

Well said, well said.

I think the real issue is with the fact Dre is.... nevermind.

 

[AdonisSMU]

God everything is hipster now. Shoot me.

Take responsibility and shoot yourself.

 

[MrXiro]

Take responsibility and shoot yourself.

The funny part is, is that I have no clue if he was for or against kids finding Apple "cool" now or not. His statement in itself is something a hipster would say.

 

[Swift]

I heard that Beats is only good for Dr Dre's music...

If you are serious about music, you should go for Sennheiser or BeyerDynamics.

Not one thing about the Beats acquisition says you can't buy any headphone you prefer and have the money for.

These headphones are certainly selling a lot for nobody liking them. It makes me wonder about the age of MacRumors posters.

I'd be interested at Ive's designs of the next Beats headphones.

It was more about Iovine and Dre, and the tech in the Beats streaming.

 

[flat five]

apple buying beats makes beats less cool and apple more cool.

all that type of stuff aside though.. pretty sure apple/beats is going to put out an awesome headphone soon enough.. maybe even better than those steinbrenners you all keep talking about.. seems like the audiophiles should be pretty excited about the merger but i guess not.

 

[LastQuadrant]

Must have been high-school students!

You forgot to add "stupid" before the word High-school.

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Not one thing about the Beats acquisition says you can't buy any headphone you prefer and have the money for.

These headphones are certainly selling a lot for nobody liking them. It makes me wonder about the age of MacRumors posters.

I'd be interested at Ive's designs of the next Beats headphones.

It was more about Iovine and Dre, and the tech in the Beats streaming.

What's stupid is that Dre or Iovine weren't running Beats Music or Beats Electronics, they had other C-level people doing that. All Iovine and Dre really did is put up the initial money and marketed the brands, but out of the two Beats Electronics was profitable and Beats Music wasn't.

Dre simply doesn't fit with Apple upper management. He got piss poor grades in high school, never went to college and all he really did was spend time creating and producing thugster rap c-rap which has NO business being part of Apple. It's just a matter of time before Dre opens his mouth again and says something in ear shot away of someone that doesn't put up with it. If he's at Apple and he socializes with the rest of the corporate people, if he says the B word or N word and that slips out, he then gets himself a nice little lawsuit and HOPEFULLY booted right out on his collective rear end. I'm shocked that Cook doesn't spend time listening to the lyrics of his songs. They are disgusting and I'm sure there are a LOT of women at Apple that would want him out on his feet with his attitude towards women. If anyone else in upper management said the things he says, they would be fired. He's just a celebrity token black person trying to appeal to the younger easily manipulated kids that are into the rap culture that can't think for themselves.

----------

I believe headphones/earbuds are quite complicated pieces of audio technology especially if you are competing against Shure, Klipsch, Etymotic, Sennheizer. Starting from scratch it would take Apple years to have their own that could begin to complete. Even with the purchase of Beats it does not put them in the same category. Companies that specialize in ear-piece audio have been doing so for decades and occassionally have a winning product. Needless to say, the typical Apple/Beats ear-buds are fairly low fidelity IMO. I would consider looking for something in the > $200 range if you are a HD lover. If we were to get Beats ear-buds with an iPhone6 it would at least be an improvement over the China Apple ear-buds.

It depends on who they worked with. They could have easily worked with the original developers of Beats (Monster) and then just redesigned something better sounding pretty quickly. Or they could have bought or worked with another smaller company and spent far less money and then replaced Beats headphones with Apple headphones and then get a cross section of the music industry to promote them.

 

[Orlandoech]

You forgot to add "stupid" before the word High-school.

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What's stupid is that Dre or Iovine weren't running Beats Music or Beats Electronics, they had other C-level people doing that. All Iovine and Dre really did is put up the initial money and marketed the brands, but out of the two Beats Electronics was profitable and Beats Music wasn't.

Dre simply doesn't fit with Apple upper management. He got piss poor grades in high school, never went to college and all he really did was spend time creating and producing thugster rap c-rap which has NO business being part of Apple. It's just a matter of time before Dre opens his mouth again and says something in ear shot away of someone that doesn't put up with it. If he's at Apple and he socializes with the rest of the corporate people, if he says the B word or N word and that slips out, he then gets himself a nice little lawsuit and HOPEFULLY booted right out on his collective rear end. I'm shocked that Cook doesn't spend time listening to the lyrics of his songs. They are disgusting and I'm sure there are a LOT of women at Apple that would want him out on his feet with his attitude towards women. If anyone else in upper management said the things he says, they would be fired. He's just a celebrity token black person trying to appeal to the younger easily manipulated kids that are into the rap culture that can't think for themselves.

Lol.... ok... While I agree Dre doesn't belong at Apple, EVERYTHING else you said is purely non-factual and all completely pathetic and ridiculous.

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I find it FUNNY how NO ONE mentions Iovine, ONLY Dre. Lol.


Hmmmm.....

Interesting...

One is black, one is white...

Odd....

 

[flat five]

He got piss poor grades in high school, never went to college and all he really did was spend time creating and

who are you talking about? einstein or? steve jobs? etcetc..

If he's at Apple and he socializes with the rest of the corporate people, if he says the B word or N word and that slips out, he then gets himself a nice little lawsuit and HOPEFULLY booted right out on his collective rear end.

black dudes are allowed to say that word.. they took it from whitey and said "you are never to use this word ever again".. and it's working.
when the point has been fully made, they'll stop using it along with everybody else..
you think you (white people) get offended when you hear that word? imagine being black and having some cracker calling you that.. then it would really suck.

I'm shocked that Cook doesn't spend time listening to the lyrics of his songs.

then you'd probably be electrocuted if you found out cook was a fan of dre's music

 

[AppleScruff1]

Just got some AT ATH-m50x's and they are by far and away the best headphones I've used (and I've used a lot )

Nice cans at a good price.

 

[AdonisSMU]

You forgot to add "stupid" before the word High-school.

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What's stupid is that Dre or Iovine weren't running Beats Music or Beats Electronics, they had other C-level people doing that. All Iovine and Dre really did is put up the initial money and marketed the brands, but out of the two Beats Electronics was profitable and Beats Music wasn't.

Dre simply doesn't fit with Apple upper management. He got piss poor grades in high school, never went to college and all he really did was spend time creating and producing thugster rap c-rap which has NO business being part of Apple. It's just a matter of time before Dre opens his mouth again and says something in ear shot away of someone that doesn't put up with it. If he's at Apple and he socializes with the rest of the corporate people, if he says the B word or N word and that slips out, he then gets himself a nice little lawsuit and HOPEFULLY booted right out on his collective rear end. I'm shocked that Cook doesn't spend time listening to the lyrics of his songs. They are disgusting and I'm sure there are a LOT of women at Apple that would want him out on his feet with his attitude towards women. If anyone else in upper management said the things he says, they would be fired. He's just a celebrity token black person trying to appeal to the younger easily manipulated kids that are into the rap culture that can't think for themselves.

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It depends on who they worked with. They could have easily worked with the original developers of Beats (Monster) and then just redesigned something better sounding pretty quickly. Or they could have bought or worked with another smaller company and spent far less money and then replaced Beats headphones with Apple headphones and then get a cross section of the music industry to promote them.

What do grades have to do with career success? Correlation does not equal causation. Additionally, sometimes common sense is enough. Beats would not be where it is today without Dr. Dre. I think other Apple employees know who fits in with them more than a fan sitting on the sidelines criticizing people they don't even know anything about.

 

[TechGod]

Student here.

Just to clarify - none of us think that Apple buying Beats will make them "cooler". We all buy Beats headphones and Apple products for the same reason we do anything: everyone else is doing it and that makes it cool. Nobody buys Macs for their quality, we just buy them because our parents are usually paying for them and we don't care how much it costs if it's cool. Same thing with Beats. Everyone knows that there's much better quality headphones out there (for much cheaper too), but we don't care about sound quality. Wearing Beats makes you cooler than the guy who's wearing those weird silver, grown-up looking cans that lack a certain letter red letter on the side.

Basically, unless we're footing the bill (and sometimes even then), how well something works is so far down the list of priorities below how cool it is that it's hardly a deciding factor in purchases for us.

Nope. Student here, Beats are POS's and I buy SkullCandy because they are comparatively cheap and better. I bought my MBP because it IS better than Windows, I might be going back to the iPhone due to the continuity features announced.

It's sad though that your opinion is shared by most others our age.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Right, the bass heavy posse wear their hats sideways, their pants hang halfway down their arse, and anytime they speak they precede what they say with "yo yo". They also have $8,000 worth of subwoofers installed in a car that's worth about $1500 bucks.

They aren't obnoxious though.... Not at all.

OK Gramps!

 

[AppleScruff1]

Try Sennheiser PX100 or PX200 series. Why not have both quality and unobtrusive?

Two good choices.

 

[imageWIS]

$3 Billion to look cool? WTF.

 

[AdonisSMU]

In my experience the only people that like Beats headphones are people who have no idea what good sound quality is, or think a lot of base equals good quality, and let's not forget the ones that buy Beats solely because they make them look "cool".

Personally, like someone else mentioned in the thread, I think they make people look like douches.

Maybe I think that, because anyone that wears any brand of headphones on their neck and is not currently djaying at a party is a douche.

I listened to beats senhieser and several other brands last week just so I could remember what all of the different high end head phones sounded like. Beats was the only one that could properly handle the bass in the songs. Some of the higher end brands sound way to trebbly and it sounds unnatural and others just couldn't handle the bass at all and they rattled a bit and this is despite being more expensive than Beats headphones. eeeek!

 

[Dave1992]

And severs the loyalty factor on regular Apple fans.

The iPod and iPhone are already cool, we don't need to impress 12 year old ex-Blackberry users.

What because Apple bought a subsidiary that no one actually knows their idea behind? That's not loyal at all. Who's we? Apple cares about profits, if "12 year old ex-blackberry users" are going to buy from apple they will do that. I for one have had a Blackberry, I have Beats Pro headphones. I love Beats headphones. Everyone seems to forget a term called market audience.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I believe it was stated in one of the news conferences that they have no plans to alter the Beats hardware "division". So, the acquisition does point more to getting some brain trust (for what I have no idea) and a quick jump into streaming than to alter Apple's headphones in any way. Or Beats'.

Time will tell, of course.

True, and part of me wants Apple to just carry Beats and the streaming service as a separate brand that just generates Apple some revenue.

I've never been the "COOL" kinda guy but I wouldn't mind some defibrillation with iTunes and real online streaming from Apple.

I don't really know if that came out right . . . . Give me Apple streaming, and let the kids keep the Beats.

Elsewhere in the news... kids continue to suck at rating brands in the vague yet all-important coolness category. Still theirs is the only opinion that truly matters, as anyone who has ever been a kid with parents knows.

True, and they are the ones that usually spend money on rather inane things. Like mobile game money that they use to spend in Farmville a free game.

Just giving a 3rd party view. And a goddamned typo! What's wrong with me?

Keep your openminded perspective to yourself!

Well said, well said.

I think the real issue is with the fact Dre is.... nevermind.

I have to leave now.

. . . . despite being more expensive than Beats headphones. eeeek!

Now I can get behind that, it really has been forever since i put on a pair of Beats . . . . I think it was the last time I worked for Apple Retail . . . but they were okay.

Now, since i work in broadcasting, I wouldn't use them to monitor audio or mix sound or even DJ (if I did that sort of thing). Those other headphones you used were probably made to give neutral, even tones and high fidelity.

 

[bearcatrp]

Ole Jonathan Ives couldn't design a better pair? Guess if you can't make it, buy it. What happened to innovation from apple?

 

[steve333]

>Beats is often criticized as being a bass-heavy fashion accessory and not a true audiophile product, but sales figures reveal that the typically younger consumers who buy Beats are more interested in appearance than audio quality<

The dumbing down of America's youth. It's on your head, you listen to music with it, why give a rat's butt what it looks like?
Must be the same morons who pound the bass in their car so loud it sets off car alarms

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I listened to beats senhieser and several other brands last week just so I could remember what all of the different high end head phones sounded like. Beats was the only one that could properly handle the bass in the songs. Some of the higher end brands sound way to trebbly and it sounds unnatural and others just couldn't handle the bass at all and they rattled a bit and this is despite being more expensive than Beats headphones. eeeek!

There are many different models within each brand. Sennheiser has models that are geared towards classical music (low bass), others more geared towards rock, etc etc. You have to know the model and match it to your music.
A lot of the higher end Sennheiser models sound better with a headphone amp

 

[cmvsm]

Beats sucks. The audio quality is not that great and the pricing is incredibly inflated for what you get. Dr. Dre must be laughing all the way to the bank. Oh wait, he already did that...

 

[steve333]

Lol.... ok... While I agree Dre doesn't belong at Apple, EVERYTHING else you said is purely non-factual and all completely pathetic and ridiculous.

Image

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I find it FUNNY how NO ONE mentions Iovine, ONLY Dre. Lol.


Hmmmm.....

Interesting...

One is black, one is white...

Odd....

One is a douche, one isn't

 

[Tech198]

Now... let's get to the "real" news...

coolness factor alert by Apple..