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Beats Music's Subscriber Base Pegged at Just 111,000

aajeevlin said:
headphone business? Someone care to talk from a professional perspective if beats is actually good headphones?
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Compared to what was there before in the mass market headphone space, they're OK to good. You can get better headphones for less if you look around, but that's always been the case. I think they sound relatively good for the market that Beats is targeted at.

They have a massive counterfeiting problem in Asia and presumably the rest of the non-first world because their look is easy to copy and the underlying thing is pretty commodity. Go through any of the electronic marketplaces and you'll see boxes and boxes of beats headphones selling for ridiculously low prices (relative to msrp).

Beats is like Bose, in that people think they're overpriced given the performance characteristics. Like Bose, they explicitly target the consumer market and have good brand recognition.

Are they worth that much? I don't think so, but it'd be interesting to know why Apple thinks they are.

I suppose buying Iovine and Dre are the only way to juice iTunes, since iTunes is so core to Apple that they can't spin it out.
 
jamesryanbell said:
I'm a full-time musician/songwriter. Streaming has absolutely killed music. One ten-thousandth of a cent per spin doesn't pay the bills. Music should be regarded as something with intrinsic value. If this keeps up, music will get even worse than it already is today...because the time people spend on pouring into their art will go down. Sure, there's a small percentage of musicians that will do it anyway, but think of all the good music that would never be, simply because talented artists *can't afford* to spend as much time as they need on their art?

So much music that could've been will be lost. What a shame.
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I listen to music all the time. I use streaming and buying CDs. I use streaming to discover music and if I like it I usually buy the CD. For example I discovered Bombay Bicycle Club on spotify and brought the new CD (so long, see you tommorw - good album guys :cool:) the next day! If it wasn't for spotify I wouldn't have brought the album. Same goes for a few others like Alt-J, Grouplove and of monster and men - all albums I brought because of streaming.
But I do completely agree that the amount they get payed for one song is unbelievable! Today, it's hard enough to break though the music industry and when you break though it can be hard to make a living - I thought it was 10-20p a song not less than a penny!
 
WinstonRumfoord said:
I don't need a law to make sure I get paid.. Neither does my neighbor, or my other neighbor. Why do "songwriters"?

I think I'll oppose this one..
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If you would read the law, you would see they are trying to remove existing law, that doesn't let songwriters use all the economic data in negotiating pay.

So basically by you passing, you are voting to keep a law and regulation that says they can't get paid.
 
Tiger8 said:
I think that's the hidden jewel in the crown right there. I don't think APPLE (being Apple) was able to negotiate royality this low, so buying a pre-negotiated deal would serve them well.
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The royalty that Apple would pay is approximately 65% of the revenue from each spin, according to the article. That laughably low number is what the record label pays the artist. The amount Apple pays out is not affected by that.
 
No Beats in Europe

I was excited to try out their service since I can use my iTunes gift credit, so I went ahead and canceled my Spotify for now, alas Beats isn't yet available in Europe. Pretty weak if you're trying to compete with the big boys. I doubt they even have the infrastructure to handle many more users than they have. I'm optimistic about the move for Apple long-term, but for now it seems like the service is just a proof-of-concept to get Apple to buy them out.
 
This seems like a good idea to me. Beats is pretty good she it comes to sound quality and one of the major complaints with the IOS devices is the sound quality through the provided speakers. SO the purchase of Beats with their technology could improve the iOS device sound quality.

I'm sure that's not the only reason, but I like it.
 
topmounter said:
"users" is only one of the reasons that has been bandied about by the Apple Fanboy Intelligentsia trying to justify this alleged acquisition... you can add "fashionable headphones", "wearable something or another", "brand", "talent" and any number of other speculative BS items to the list.
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No, the number of users has not. The technology? Yes.
 
This whole thing just doesn't sit well with me. Has Apple ever bought another company for brand recognition? Something here is odd.
 
jamesryanbell said:
I'm a full-time musician/songwriter. Streaming has absolutely killed music. One ten-thousandth of a cent per spin doesn't pay the bills. Music should be regarded as something with intrinsic value. If this keeps up, music will get even worse than it already is today...because the time people spend on pouring into their art will go down. Sure, there's a small percentage of musicians that will do it anyway, but think of all the good music that would never be, simply because talented artists *can't afford* to spend as much time as they need on their art?

So much music that could've been will be lost. What a shame.
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I agree with everything you wrote, except blaming it on streaming. Streaming technology opened a new revenue stream, a new more efficient method of content delivery. Overall, it's a great thing. Your beef is with the pay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there are two options: sign away the rights to the recordings to a record label, and get paid much less per play but get some other intangible benefits of a label; or attempt to sell your recordings on your own, but have zero leverage in a negotiation for royalties. Is this correct?

I want to understand this problem; I believe there is a solution out there if the problem is properly understood.
 
jamesryanbell said:
I'm a full-time musician/songwriter. Streaming has absolutely killed music. One ten-thousandth of a cent per spin doesn't pay the bills. Music should be regarded as something with intrinsic value. If this keeps up, music will get even worse than it already is today...because the time people spend on pouring into their art will go down. Sure, there's a small percentage of musicians that will do it anyway, but think of all the good music that would never be, simply because talented artists *can't afford* to spend as much time as they need on their art?

So much music that could've been will be lost. What a shame.
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Go out and play some gigs ;)

----------

Johnny Ive likes the sound of Beats headphones. Says he used them whilst designing ios 7's new look ;)
 
Laird Knox said:
Then again that is a single play for a single person. When a radio station plays a track it might be heard by 10s or 100s of thousands. I'm sure the models will change over the next several years but it is definitely a new dynamic in an established industry.

This was an interesting read: http://www.awe-radio.com/blog/royalties/#.U3JITCgXJQ8
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If that number is accurate it would only cost apple $126,000 for one billion plays... that is remarkably low.
 
JoEw said:
If that number is accurate it would only cost apple $126,000 for one billion plays... that is remarkably low.
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Calculating the numbers on that line then Beats is paying out about 0.2 cents per play - or $2 million for your 1 billion plays. However, royalty payments aren't that straight forward and are based on revenue in the radio world. Since the service is only 30 days old there isn't much to go on in regards to the revenue.

Streaming media is changing the entire distribution model and it will be some time before everything stabilizes.
 
jamesryanbell said:
I'm a full-time musician/songwriter. Streaming has absolutely killed music. One ten-thousandth of a cent per spin doesn't pay the bills. Music should be regarded as something with intrinsic value. If this keeps up, music will get even worse than it already is today...because the time people spend on pouring into their art will go down. Sure, there's a small percentage of musicians that will do it anyway, but think of all the good music that would never be, simply because talented artists *can't afford* to spend as much time as they need on their art?

So much music that could've been will be lost. What a shame.
Click to expand...

Music is BETTER than it's ever been. I've never listened to more or been exposed to more types of music thanks to Spotify. The radio sucks and only exposes people to a limited number of artists.

Music has always been rags or riches, like any art. At least now, music discovery is extremely easy. No one made money on YouTube, but a few great artists were discovered there. Same with spotify.
 
kagharaht said:
I'm not sorry. Spending 3+ Billion Dollars ( if true ) is just plain stupid.
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That may be true.

Then again... Apple makes $3 billion in a month. Even if nothing comes from this... it will barely affect their cash hoard.

I'm sure Apple has done their homework and has some reason for spending this much money on a single acquisition. It will be interesting to see what comes from this.
 
as a Musician I would be pissed !!

it would take 230 Million listens to equal the same value as a User (29k)

Spotify pays way better $0.006-$0.0084 = 3.4Million listens / (29k)
 
This whole thing makes me sad.
Apple should be announcing radical world-changing technology no one else can afford to produce.

Instead, we have this.
wtf
 
I think once you put the Apple name to this, instead of what it is currently called and have it available across multiple platforms, it will take off. Right now, I don't think the products as a whole has a lot of name recognition behind it.
 
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