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Apple's Acquisition of Beats Could Be Delayed Because of Valuation, Roles, and More
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Outraged or just shocked?
Look up the lyrics to most any of "Dre's" songs. In what way exactly was this surprising?
Every time I hear Dr Dre I find myself feeling older, more cynical and souding like Bill Cosby [link] - from the rampant homophobia, misogyny, the glamorising of the 'ghetto' along with gangs and violence I really have to ask whether *THAT* is the sort of image that Apple wish to associate themselves with and whether the black community want that as the representation of their community given that the likes of Martin Luther King fought his whole life against the negative stereotypes that the white ruling class would spread about them.
For those asking why Apple doesn't just buy Spotify, as far as I understand it Spotify's current music licensing agreements become void if they get taken over by another company so they would have to be renegotiated. As it took Spotify over a year to launch its service in the States after it had been running in Europe for ages, an Apple purchase could prove seriously disruptive to its services.
I understand that Beats has no such restrictions on its license agreements and so it counts as low hanging fruit for any company looking to buy in to the streaming music business.
I understand that Beats has no such restrictions on its license agreements and so it counts as low hanging fruit for any company looking to buy in to the streaming music business.
There is hope yet!!! With Beats all I see is two old "hipsters" with an over-hyped fad product. If Apple buys an outfit like this it confirms my worst fear that Apple is being "Ballmerized". 
Lucky for us you nor that video represents the ENTIRETY of African American culture.
So no, it didn't set "US" back 200 years.
Neither do you it seems, I mean no offense when I say that though. What you're describing is prejudice which white people have a hard time differentiating between racism. Anyone can be prejudice toward anyone else, but it takes systemic power to be racist towards another group of people.
So the OP is being prejudice, and the most white people use their priviledge to escape the necessity of learning the difference between it, racism, and the "race card" and just blurt whatever makes them feel better out of their mouths.
What amazing proof you've provided!
You can, but at the same time hip-hop and African American culture aren't that intertwined. Sure, AA culture is responsible for much of American music throughout time, but hip-hop is seriously more of a white suburban thing.
Yes, it's roots are in AA culture, as most of American music is, but this contemporary deplorable music that everyone alludes to is a creation of high white society to draw in white suburban kids so they can have a taste of the "other" culture that these youths so frequently do.
Again, no . . . . . the oppressed people in a society, in our case Asians, Latinos, African Americans, and in some cases the many differing ethnicities from Europe, CANNOT be racist if they don't control a system of social power to keep an entire group of people oppressed.
The word you're looking for is P-R-E-J-U-D-I-C-E.
Also, Audio Technica is so far below Beats, Bose, Sennheiser, etc. that it's just sad to bring them up. Besides, if Apple is thinking of buying Beats they are doing it for the brand, not the tech. AT doesn't have anywhere near the brand recognition.
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Originally Posted by Ryth View Post
You have no clue what being racist is.
I don't care what color your skin is, you act like a moron, thug, classless, then I don't want to associate with you. So you could be a inner city thug who is black or a high class rich white person, and if you do any of those things, I consider you the same.
That's not racist. That's called being mature and wise.
But hey, most people pull the race card out because their culture and majority of it uses it for gain because they don't want to take personal responsibility for their actions or pulling themselves out of the culture that brings racism to them.)
Could I submit to you that you are show signs of white privilege? That last statement has three distinct elements of "my culture is superior to anyone else's and everyone should act like me.
Sure, some of modern American music is influenced by "AA" music, but when you are ignorant of classical music you will not realize that most modern "AA" music is influenced by classical music. You hear a song that sounds good and realize the chords and progressions originated 600 years ago in Ireland or Austria.
As for racism, anybody can be racist against anybody, people can even be racist against themselves. Your accusations of white privilege reveal your own hatred. Please, learn to love, learn to forgive, learn to be at peace. Your anger is consuming you. You are hurting nobody but yourself.
They already do go to www.apple.com and look in their accessories section beats makes the most profit out of an accessory in the Apple Store. Go to iTunes and you see they sell all of his music. We will also find that Apple also sells to every culture including the one Dr. Dre is a part of. You guys post with so much emotion but that's not what happens in the boardroom.
When you make a multi-billion dollar deal with a company like Apple, you don't celebrate until the papers are signed, when you do celebrate you do it away from cameras and YouTube, and you sure as hell don't comment on anything publicly until after the papers are signed!
I could not be happier about this story. I can only hope it's true.
I'm a black man and don't include me in your "us".Lmao@ a 30 second video with two successful black men at a private party "setting back black people 200 years"
Maybe it set back coons and uncle toms 200 years but not black folks.
I'm going to say it again I'm almost sure this is a controlled leak and I bet you these papers have been sign for a while now.
Andre Young is a platinum-selling hate speech artist. He doesn't belong at Apple which has a long, outstanding record of employment equality.
Jobs once canceled a deal with ATI http://www.zdnet.com/ati-suffers-wrath-of-jobs-3002080337/ over a much smaller leak than Andre's YouTube video.
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The video with Tyrese says it all. These are a bunch if drunken hate mongers that like to throw around the N word for their own financial gains. Not to mention all of the homophobic and hateful lyrics they spew out. The thought of them becoming a part of Apple makes me sick.
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Apple needs Beats, more than Beats needs Apple.
It is Beats who have are having second thoughts about this.
It is Beats who are worried that their brand will become 'tarnished' by mixing with Apple culture, not the other way around.
Post-Jobs Apple culture has become stale, myopic, and un-cool. Many of the comments posted on these Apple fan boards, which are much more offensive than a harmless youtube clip BTW, are indicative of that phenomenon.
Apple is dangerously close to losing cultural relevancy. 'iTunes' is already dead, and being killed by streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio, and Beats.
Those of you who are so smart /s tell me how:
Apple will create it's own streaming service without licensing deals?
Apple will forge content deals, in house, without Iovine, who basically helped Steve ink the initial content deals for the iTMS? (You think he will help what would become a competitor to his own service? LOL)
Apple will reach to a new generation of consumers? (i.e. young people with whom Apple is in danger of becoming un-cool now?)
Those who think that Apple should just only appeal to middle aged rich white men(Bose lol) are just plain clueless about the culture we are living in, just like Apple is in danger of becoming.
This is life and death for Apple.
It is Beats who have are having second thoughts about this.
It is Beats who are worried that their brand will become 'tarnished' by mixing with Apple culture, not the other way around.
Post-Jobs Apple culture has become stale, myopic, and un-cool. Many of the comments posted on these Apple fan boards, which are much more offensive than a harmless youtube clip BTW, are indicative of that phenomenon.
Apple is dangerously close to losing cultural relevancy. 'iTunes' is already dead, and being killed by streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio, and Beats.
Those of you who are so smart /s tell me how:
Apple will create it's own streaming service without licensing deals?
Apple will forge content deals, in house, without Iovine, who basically helped Steve ink the initial content deals for the iTMS? (You think he will help what would become a competitor to his own service? LOL)
Apple will reach to a new generation of consumers? (i.e. young people with whom Apple is in danger of becoming un-cool now?)
Those who think that Apple should just only appeal to middle aged rich white men(Bose lol) are just plain clueless about the culture we are living in, just like Apple is in danger of becoming.
This is life and death for Apple.
There is a huge difference between reselling vs. owning a business - I assume for someone who writes so arrogantly that you might have spent some time familiarising your self with the difference.
And if you do celebrate it publicly then ask yourself, "would my mum be impressed about the way I behave" for some reason Dr Dre's mum would have given him a smack around the back of the head and told him to get his act together. Honestly are people so uptight all the time that when they celebrate they go crazy?
Oh what a load of crap - outside of the US of A people are very much buying music on iTunes whether the doomsayers like you are willing to admit it. The decline wasn't massive, 0.1% for album sales and 5.4% for tracks sold - in other words easily explained away by virtue of the fact that there hasn't been a decent music release in the last few years that is worth a damn. As for Beats music, it isn't even available in any of the Asia-Pacific countries like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore etc. Honestly - it is yet another American-Centric company with a minuscule catalogue that Apple themselves could easily build by plodding along rather than wasting $3.2billion - heck, I'd sooner see Apple buy out Adobe and become an end to end provider of creative software.
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And I was right about Beats here come the people saying you are just racist blah blah bunch of Dr. Dre Fanboys raging.
IF they want headphones. The streaming business is not worth $3 billion by itself so Apple obviously wanted the other part as well.
As for the other poster who said Bose, etc are better than A-T , sound quality wise Bose is not better. Sennheiser and other brands have some better models but if Apple wanted to brand their own headphones A-T would be a good way to go, IMO
Sure there is an NDA. It gives you two remedies, sue for damages (probably none, and Dre did not reveal any Apple secrets, the existence of negotiations are much more Beats secrets than Apples) or seek an injunction to stop the leak before it happens (too late for that).
Apple doesn't need a reason to cancel negotiations unless they've already signed a pretty strong letter of intent, memo of understanding, or term sheet. Which maybe they have, which is why Dre thought it okay to shoot his mouth off. It isn't uncommon for a CEO to celebrate at that stage, since they might not have much input or involvement in the final documentation and closing of a deal.
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The article that I was responding to said that the Apple Family was shocked by the video. I know Apple likes secrecy. That is because their competitors are continually trying to copy them. This acquisition of Beats doesn't really seem like a scenario where there is any real way to copy Apple except to lob in a competing offer for Beats.
I can't imagine any particular reason why Dr. Dre would be expected to grok Apple. Nor why Apple would think the Beats corporate culture is going to fit in any way with Apple's culture.
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Yep, cardinal rule. Not sure why anyone would expect Dr. Dre to know about that rule. Now Jimmy I knows this rule due to his many discussions with Jobs in the past. Maybe Jimmy didn't make this clear to Dre. Maybe Dre didn't take it seriously. Maybe this was a controlled leak in order to influence negotiations in the favor of Beats (certainly can't see why anyone at Beats would have thought that it would help).
My point is only that salty language and boasting should not come as a shock to the Apple Family. Anyone who thought through the steps should have known that something like this was coming. Would the Apple Family be okay with this after the deal was done and the cash handed over? I'm pretty sure at that point the party would have been a lot bigger and the video more than a hand held affair.
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I bet some papers were signed (term sheet, letter of intent, etc.). Heck, maybe all the papers were signed just the closing conditions haven't been reached. Though I doubt this is the case, one can certainly sign up a purchase agreement with the closing scheduled for a future date. The leaks about renegotiation seem to indicate that this is not the case. But I bet something was signed and hands were shook. Dre seems pretty confident in that video and the guy is an experienced businessman. And a businessman operating in a field filled with b----*****. I expect he knows the difference between talk and a deal.
"Now" would mean I was referring to him as something else previously. I think that was my first post in this thread. I could have used many words in replace of "boy," man, kid, he, guy, etc. Boy sounded the silliest, as my comment was meant to be taken. Not even considering the potential racial slight when I wrote that, as that was not on my mind in the least.