Loving how everything Apple does is labeled a failure, sort of like the ‘failed and disappointing’ iPhone Apple releases every year... and the headphone jack, and AirPods, and the Watch, and, and, and.
Apple's decision to announce production of three shows (Carpool Karaoke, Planet of the Apps, Vital Signs) before they're available is a break from the company's tradition of not commenting on unannounced products.
In my opinion, it's a mistake... and an example of why Apple's normal approach (NOT commenting on unannounced products) is best. If a concept doesn't live up to the producers' original hopes, let it die a graceful death behind closed doors.
So its a mistake..........even before you've watched a single episode. Seriously. How clownish can we get.
I didn't say that Apple creating content was a mistake. I said that Apple ANNOUNCING their specific plans was a mistake -- out of character with their normal plan of not commenting on unannounced products.
And stop with the personal attacks ("clownish"); it's unbecoming.
Loving how everything Apple does is labeled a failure, sort of like the ‘failed and disappointing’ iPhone Apple releases every year... and the headphone jack, and AirPods, and the Watch, and, and, and.
You know if anybody had said that here you would have an argument. Otherwise you are engaging a strawman.
Theres a reasonable discussion on the use to Apple of this particular content.
So is this what Apple's $3B purchase of Beats was for?
This makes no sense at all. You know damn well why Apple purchased Beats. We need to get over this Beats purchase. Its more than worked out for Apple. People here bitch up a storm because Apple never buys anything, specially anything large and when they do all people do is bitch because of reason X, Y, Z. Apple has more than made their money back on Beats and its actually making them money and has been for quite a while now.
What's next, this is why Apple hasn't released a new Mac Pro? I'm just waiting for someone here to post that and be totally serious!
No actually I'm still trying to figure out what Beats was good for. And don't give me crap about a profitable headphone business. NOBODY was saying 'you know what Apple needs is a profitable headphone business'. Besides Beats headphone revenues are minuscule. Apple has said on more than one earnings call that the bulk of 'other' revenue comes from Apple Watch. And if you say they bought Beats to get Jimmy Iovine I ask what the hell has he done for the company besides these crappy reality tv shows no one wants.
I don't think you have a clue.....You want to complain, but don't have the facts to do it. Obviously it wasn't for the headphone business. I don't really think Apple cares a whole lot about Beats headphones although they could improve this line. Everyone knows this wasn't a huge money maker. I doubt the clientele for Beats headphones don't even know Apple owns Beats nor do they care. Apple cares more about the music side and I doubt Apple Music would be what it is today without this purchase. This is where Apple has made their money back from Beats...not their headphones. You don't know what Jimmy does or doesn't do. Just because its not all over AppleInisder and other Apple sites doesn't mean it just sits in a chair and collects a paycheck. He's very well known in the music industry and thats not a bad thing for Apple.
And again, this has nothing to do with Apple's purchase of Beats. So lets put this stupid topic to rest. This horse has been beaten to death!
Headphones is important. Just look at Airpods. Don't tell me buying Beats did not help them in developing the Airpods.
Beats+Airpods are easily selling a couple billion in sales. And Airpods is a key part of Apple's multi-wearable strategy.
True, AirPods seem to be very popular, but I can't really say whether or not Beats had a key role in the development of them. This is something Apple could have developed without Beats. What I was getting at is that Apple most likely didn't purchase Beats for their headphone line, but rather their experience in music which is far more profitable. Getting Beats headphones was just icing on the cake.
Bottomline is Apple hasn't lost money on this deal. They've already paid for this purchase many many months ago (not long after the acquisition). I don't know why this keeps getting brought up. It's silly! Apple knows what its doing and its so easy for any one of us to sit at our desk and think we know how to run a multi-billion company better than the ones doing it...and oh actually making BILLIONS in profits in the process. Other companies are buying very large companies and losing billions while Apple purchased one company for a few billion and has already made good use of the purchase and has already paid for the purchase as well.
And some here wonder why Apple doesn't make large transactions and purchase large companies...
So is this what Apple's $3B purchase of Beats was for?
This makes no sense at all. You know damn well why Apple purchased Beats. We need to get over this Beats purchase. Its more than worked out for Apple. People here bitch up a storm because Apple never buys anything, specially anything large and when they do all people do is bitch because of reason X, Y, Z. Apple has more than made their money back on Beats and its actually making them money and has been for quite a while now.
What's next, this is why Apple hasn't released a new Mac Pro? I'm just waiting for someone here to post that and be totally serious!
No actually I'm still trying to figure out what Beats was good for. And don't give me crap about a profitable headphone business. NOBODY was saying 'you know what Apple needs is a profitable headphone business'. Besides Beats headphone revenues are minuscule. Apple has said on more than one earnings call that the bulk of 'other' revenue comes from Apple Watch. And if you say they bought Beats to get Jimmy Iovine I ask what the hell has he done for the company besides these crappy reality tv shows no one wants.
I'll go out on a limb and say Jimmy Iovine probably does more productive tasks than constantly whine on the Internet about Apple...
So is this what Apple's $3B purchase of Beats was for?
This makes no sense at all. You know damn well why Apple purchased Beats. We need to get over this Beats purchase. Its more than worked out for Apple. People here bitch up a storm because Apple never buys anything, specially anything large and when they do all people do is bitch because of reason X, Y, Z. Apple has more than made their money back on Beats and its actually making them money and has been for quite a while now.
What's next, this is why Apple hasn't released a new Mac Pro? I'm just waiting for someone here to post that and be totally serious!
No actually I'm still trying to figure out what Beats was good for. And don't give me crap about a profitable headphone business. NOBODY was saying 'you know what Apple needs is a profitable headphone business'. Besides Beats headphone revenues are minuscule. Apple has said on more than one earnings call that the bulk of 'other' revenue comes from Apple Watch. And if you say they bought Beats to get Jimmy Iovine I ask what the hell has he done for the company besides these crappy reality tv shows no one wants.
I'll go out on a limb and say Jimmy Iovine probably does more productive tasks than constantly whine on the Internet about Apple...
Hopefully, although not a fair comparison as he is paid handsomely for working for Apple. Maybe on this downtime he gets on the internet and criticises stuff unlrelated to his work, maybe he doesnt. Not relevant.
Being pro-Apple doesnt mean we have to think every exec, and every executive action, is brilliant. We dont.
So is this what Apple's $3B purchase of Beats was for?
This makes no sense at all. You know damn well why Apple purchased Beats. We need to get over this Beats purchase. Its more than worked out for Apple. People here bitch up a storm because Apple never buys anything, specially anything large and when they do all people do is bitch because of reason X, Y, Z. Apple has more than made their money back on Beats and its actually making them money and has been for quite a while now.
What's next, this is why Apple hasn't released a new Mac Pro? I'm just waiting for someone here to post that and be totally serious!
No actually I'm still trying to figure out what Beats was good for. And don't give me crap about a profitable headphone business. NOBODY was saying 'you know what Apple needs is a profitable headphone business'. Besides Beats headphone revenues are minuscule. Apple has said on more than one earnings call that the bulk of 'other' revenue comes from Apple Watch. And if you say they bought Beats to get Jimmy Iovine I ask what the hell has he done for the company besides these crappy reality tv shows no one wants.
I'll go out on a limb and say Jimmy Iovine probably does more productive tasks than constantly whine on the Internet about Apple...
Hopefully, although not a fair comparison as he is paid handsomely for working for Apple. Maybe on this downtime he gets on the internet and criticises stuff unlrelated to his work, maybe he doesnt. Not relevant.
Being pro-Apple doesnt mean we have to think every exec, and every executive action, is brilliant. We dont.
I 100% agree. I don't think that everything Apple does is brilliant - there are many valid criticisms to be had (and we see tons of not-really-valid ones too). However, if you follow the OP's posts, you will know that he/she is 75% negative on Apple, and constantly brings up issues like this over-and-over-and-over again. Apple Music seems to be doing very well, and the purchase of Beats was a core component of that. The headphone line was not the reason for purchase, but given the market & Beats leadership position it would seem to be something that "helps pay the bills". For someone to still be whining "Why Beats" now is not valid criticism. Sorry.
So is this what Apple's $3B purchase of Beats was for?
This makes no sense at all. You know damn well why Apple purchased Beats. We need to get over this Beats purchase. Its more than worked out for Apple. People here bitch up a storm because Apple never buys anything, specially anything large and when they do all people do is bitch because of reason X, Y, Z. Apple has more than made their money back on Beats and its actually making them money and has been for quite a while now.
What's next, this is why Apple hasn't released a new Mac Pro? I'm just waiting for someone here to post that and be totally serious!
No actually I'm still trying to figure out what Beats was good for. And don't give me crap about a profitable headphone business. NOBODY was saying 'you know what Apple needs is a profitable headphone business'. Besides Beats headphone revenues are minuscule. Apple has said on more than one earnings call that the bulk of 'other' revenue comes from Apple Watch. And if you say they bought Beats to get Jimmy Iovine I ask what the hell has he done for the company besides these crappy reality tv shows no one wants.
Do you suffer from chronic amnesia? It's been well established many, many times over why they bought Beats (it wasn't ever about headphones!), and that it clearly paid for itself in short order. It's almost like you're trying to forget the many previous threads about this in which you participated.
I am excited though that you've potentially replaced Cue with Iovine as the do-nothing at Apple that needs to be fired. It's a new day.
Apple, please. We are all begging you. Shoot this dog in the head now and put it out of its misery before the whole world knows what a disaster this idea is.
Serious question: why is it a disaster? I have never seen the Late Late Show or Carpool Karaoke (except for in one of the keynotes last year). However, I work with a bunch of people who are very excited about it.
Sounds like you are not old enough to know what 'The Real World' did to MTV. 'TV shows' on MTV killed the channel that used to be 24/7 music videos. The same will happen with Apple Music.
Oh, I don't know. Maybe they'll do something acceptable to audiences with this, but neither the idea, nor the execution has ever appealed to me and I never liked James Corden.
I think Apple is going down the wrong path by getting into generating content like this. This frivolous crap seems beneath them. Stick with what you know and do best, Apple. Let's see some eye-popping innovation again. Let others work on the entertainment that you can then sell on your platforms. Make a deal with Disney to generate new exclusive content with Apple, like what Disney/Marvel has been doing for Netflix (for example).
It does seem a bit out of their usual way of working, they always prided themselves on being the benchmark of quality in everything they do and this kind of thing is far from high quality content, it's more like filler content. They don't do tacky things with their hardware and OS but apps and services are different in how they are sold to users.
This looks like it's intended to appeal to a music audience more than a TV audience. The trailer was released a while ago:
If you held that up against quality TV shows then it falls short but as an extension to Music, I can see how it would attract music fans because you are getting to see musicians in a more personal format. It's a way to sell music subscriptions rather than TV subscriptions. Eddy Cue describes it that way here as just something fun and unique to appeal to people of all ages in the context of Music:
Quality video content costs a lot (money and time) to produce and market. The Time Warner CEO says they have a couple of billion dollars budget for original content:
If Apple delivers 100 billion streams (~13 songs per user per day) at $0.007 then they pay out $700m with $2.4b revenue. There are marketing expenses to come out of that but it looks like they'd have a sizeable budget to spend on quality video. Amazon spent $250m on The Grand Tour for 3 seasons of around 12 episodes ($7m per episode) and I wouldn't say that it's comparable in quality to TV content like Game of Thrones and yet it's comparable in the amount at $10m per episode.
Apple has clearly chosen this format as the best way to showcase musical talent in video format. I would guess each star will be paid a few million to star in the episodes. They have licensed 16 episodes of the show so that could be over $100m cost. People won't just watch the shows on things like the Apple TV but on smartphones. There aren't many formats that you can show musicians in video that are fun. Official music videos are good sometimes but they're not really fun to watch, especially with multiple people watching together.
When it comes to high quality video to appeal to a TV audience then given that Time Warner is producing the content they are with a $2b budget, Apple with over $200b could easily rival that so long as they spend it right. They are sort of a 'new money' player in content, even more so than Netflix and if they don't know where to put the money then it's not going to deliver good results. Netflix has a large budget but I wouldn't say that it shows in the quality of content they offer vs TV networks:
Making deals with studios like Disney would be a good idea, that would work for music too as they can get the songs from popular Disney movies for singalong and they can have apps on the Apple TV for this. Buying Disney probably wouldn't be a good fit as they'd have to operate the theme parks. Time Warner would be better but again there will be parts of their business the people at Apple don't want to be involved in. They are primarily hardware and software engineers. Licensing good content would be the best value way to go but they can commission exclusives. Exclusive Disney songs, exclusive TV show spin-offs, exclusive movie/game tie-ins that will all help sell their own products.
Comments
And stop with the personal attacks ("clownish"); it's unbecoming.
Theres a reasonable discussion on the use to Apple of this particular content.
Bottomline is Apple hasn't lost money on this deal. They've already paid for this purchase many many months ago (not long after the acquisition). I don't know why this keeps getting brought up. It's silly! Apple knows what its doing and its so easy for any one of us to sit at our desk and think we know how to run a multi-billion company better than the ones doing it...and oh actually making BILLIONS in profits in the process. Other companies are buying very large companies and losing billions while Apple purchased one company for a few billion and has already made good use of the purchase and has already paid for the purchase as well.
And some here wonder why Apple doesn't make large transactions and purchase large companies...
53% sarcasm and you missed every dripping percentage point.
Being pro-Apple doesnt mean we have to think every exec, and every executive action, is brilliant. We dont.
I am excited though that you've potentially replaced Cue with Iovine as the do-nothing at Apple that needs to be fired. It's a new day.
This looks like it's intended to appeal to a music audience more than a TV audience. The trailer was released a while ago:
If you held that up against quality TV shows then it falls short but as an extension to Music, I can see how it would attract music fans because you are getting to see musicians in a more personal format. It's a way to sell music subscriptions rather than TV subscriptions. Eddy Cue describes it that way here as just something fun and unique to appeal to people of all ages in the context of Music:
http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/carpool-karaoke-apple-music-buys-series-1201823423/
Quality video content costs a lot (money and time) to produce and market. The Time Warner CEO says they have a couple of billion dollars budget for original content:
http://deadline.com/2016/12/time-warner-jeff-bewkes-hbo-programming-budget-increase-1201865342/
Apple has over 20m subscribers at around $10/month so $200m/month. Estimated payout rates are here:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/spotify-apple-music-tidal-music-streaming-services-royalty-rates-compared/
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/01/20/report-claims-apple-music-pays-more-to-record-labels-in-royalties-per-stream-than-spotify
If Apple delivers 100 billion streams (~13 songs per user per day) at $0.007 then they pay out $700m with $2.4b revenue. There are marketing expenses to come out of that but it looks like they'd have a sizeable budget to spend on quality video. Amazon spent $250m on The Grand Tour for 3 seasons of around 12 episodes ($7m per episode) and I wouldn't say that it's comparable in quality to TV content like Game of Thrones and yet it's comparable in the amount at $10m per episode.
Apple has clearly chosen this format as the best way to showcase musical talent in video format. I would guess each star will be paid a few million to star in the episodes. They have licensed 16 episodes of the show so that could be over $100m cost. People won't just watch the shows on things like the Apple TV but on smartphones. There aren't many formats that you can show musicians in video that are fun. Official music videos are good sometimes but they're not really fun to watch, especially with multiple people watching together.
When it comes to high quality video to appeal to a TV audience then given that Time Warner is producing the content they are with a $2b budget, Apple with over $200b could easily rival that so long as they spend it right. They are sort of a 'new money' player in content, even more so than Netflix and if they don't know where to put the money then it's not going to deliver good results. Netflix has a large budget but I wouldn't say that it shows in the quality of content they offer vs TV networks:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/17/netflixs-6-billion-content-budget-in-2017-makes-it-one-of-the-top-spenders.html
Making deals with studios like Disney would be a good idea, that would work for music too as they can get the songs from popular Disney movies for singalong and they can have apps on the Apple TV for this. Buying Disney probably wouldn't be a good fit as they'd have to operate the theme parks. Time Warner would be better but again there will be parts of their business the people at Apple don't want to be involved in. They are primarily hardware and software engineers. Licensing good content would be the best value way to go but they can commission exclusives. Exclusive Disney songs, exclusive TV show spin-offs, exclusive movie/game tie-ins that will all help sell their own products.