Agreed. I have always thought that the Beats crew were some of the weirdest, pointless hires at Apple.
But what do I know.
Buying Beats was Apple anchoring their brand in a whole additional market
What market is that exactly? Apple bought Beats at its plateau. I remember going into Best Buy years ago and seeing hardly any headphones that weren’t Beats. Not anymore. Now Best Buy is showcasing JBL, Sony, AKG, AudioTechnica, B&O, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, etc. Maybe celebrities & althletes are still big Beats users. But when I’m at the gym I see more people wearing AirPods than Beats.
Not at my gym, Beats are more common by far. And remember, they were the #1 selling accessory at Apple stores. Apple made its money back the first year.
No matter how much you dislike rap music, Beats was a smash success and a slam dunk for Apple. Sorry it hurts.
You destroy your point when you make up numbers! =/ We don’t know exactly how much Beats has made Apple so far because it’s lumped into their “other” category... but when Apple bought them in 2014 they were making about $300 million in revenue; unless you really think they went on to increase that by a tenfold the next year- Apple obviously didn’t make their money back the next year. Tbh, it is incredibly likely that they haven’t yet. It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that they could recoup a $3 billion investment in a single year... were that possible, Beats would been valued MUCH higher. That’s pretty much how the market works... the value was ascertained based on both their current AND estimated immediate future sales.
Indeed. These guys are repeatedly creating multimillion and billion dollar fortunes, and we’re commenting on a rumors site.
Donald Trump is a billionaire.
Even tho you don’t like the man, he is obviously doing some things right. Rich, and the most powerful man on earth. Not bad.
Iovine's strength was he understood what music culture was all about. Not sure any of the senior execs at Apple currently do.
Interesting. Music is music and tastes differ widely.
Lovines "music culture" isn't someone else's. Andre Youngs version of music culture isn't someone else's.
Music culture is something you you don't understand. It's like saying Apple needs to buy a movie distribution and hire someone who knows movie culture.
It may sound good at first. But then doing so obscures the simplicity that was already there and forces one persons ideals on everyone.
Case in point was Apple Music. People didn't want the mess that was. So Apple ended up simplifying along the lines of iTunes.
People dont want to buy to buy someone else's taste. They just want "1,000 songs in their pocket" with a variety of tastes they choose.
Whatever you think of the Beats purchase (or the purchase price), Apple more than made their money back on it in no time flat -- and Dre and Iovine continue to be highly successful. While Apple Music hasn't toppled Spotify yet, it's doing incredibly well while Tidal and Pandora struggle. Clearly, Iovine's idea for a music service worked.
If you look around you, ask your friends and everyone else, who "discover" music on Apple Music or heck any other streaming services.
And guess what Apple just bought that really discover music? Shazam.
Read and Listen to everything Iovine has said publicly, if he said what he meant was Music, then I guarantee that his way of "Music" doesn't work. And it kind of shows because he hasn't been saying "The Next Song" for a long time.
Apple has always been about user experience, Apple gave Iovine the money, market share, and time to show his way of discovering Music is great and works. But Market doesn't buy it. Shazam won, by a wide margin.
I dont know why everyone is pointing the finger at Eddy. Even If Planet of Apps was his fault ( there are now writings that it was actually Iovine's role ), then I think the 4K Movie Apple TV pricing and free upgrade got him covered. Eddy still has great strength at negotiation.
Meeting cofounder Steve Jobs and executive Eddy Cue back in 2013. He recalled that first meeting in an interview last year.
And then...
He ended up joining Apple more than 11 years later, as Apple sought to get Apple Music off the ground with the acquisition of the Beats Music streaming service.
Agreed. I have always thought that the Beats crew were some of the weirdest, pointless hires at Apple.
But what do I know.
Buying Beats was Apple anchoring their brand in a whole additional market
What market is that exactly? Apple bought Beats at its plateau. I remember going into Best Buy years ago and seeing hardly any headphones that weren’t Beats. Not anymore. Now Best Buy is showcasing JBL, Sony, AKG, AudioTechnica, B&O, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, etc. Maybe celebrities & althletes are still big Beats users. But when I’m at the gym I see more people wearing AirPods than Beats.
Not at my gym, Beats are more common by far. And remember, they were the #1 selling accessory at Apple stores. Apple made its money back the first year.
No matter how much you dislike rap music, Beats was a smash success and a slam dunk for Apple. Sorry it hurts.
The most popular at my gym is neither. It's hearing aids. Lots of us old farts...
I agree 100%. I remember simpler days at Apple where iTunes properly managed my music library. I could easily find a song, preview it, and buy it. It was easy to sync to my devices.
Then, I subscribed to iTunes Match which resulted in duplicates, wrong metadata, and even some lost songs that are difficult or impossible to replace. I unsubscribed and tried to turn all that junk off, but remnants still haunt me to this day.
Then, Iovine comes along. Operational logic and layouts began to change faster than I could keep up. Basic features such as the ability to add a song heard on an Apple Radio station to my wish list or immediate purchase disappeared as Apple did everything they could to force me to use the cloud and pay for a perpetual subscription to contain my music. I can no longer review my Apple Radio history to find songs to purchase.
I guess I'm getting old. *le sigh* Time for a walk-in bathtub, a LifeAlert, a HurryCane, and a Jitterbug phone.
I respect Iovine but always questioned the Beats deal and Iovine's value or contribution to Apple. Although I am a shameless adopter of Apple's eco system I have never used Apple Music -- not even the free trial -- not once, to this very day. I love my AirPods but am confident Apple could have produced them without Beats. A lousy deal by a company that can afford big mistakes, IMO.
Agreed. I have always thought that the Beats crew were some of the weirdest, pointless hires at Apple.
But what do I know.
Buying Beats was Apple anchoring their brand in a whole additional market
Pretty sure iTunes had it covered. Beats had a tiny share. But it does give Apple the appearance of a broader demographic to those who might criticize things they don’t understand.
ITunes was already limping obese and legacy 5 years into IPhone. Beats was and remains Superior sadly to what’s on offer from everybody. It’s aesthetic was designed as opposed to 7th grade quark Express computer lab abortion that is the White with bid elder person font..,
its time one for a deep iOS 7 style redesign and fucking make CarPlay on app so it will gain wider adoption and work whether your head unit works or not ...
Oh and since my fave Alexa will be saying ads soon she will be fired and that leaves me with which lady Cortana ? Apple stop fucking around and make Siri the big priority it should be. No one needs that speaker they need Siri to be good enough to drive my car and not have a snarky annoying response to swears
Thought Iovine was in it for the long run, last I heard he had huge ideas for Apple Music.
Im surprised he stood this long. Jimmy likes moving to the next thing.
Yeah but he seemed passionate about Apple and what he wanted to bring to Apple Music and where he wanted the service to go, so I'm slightly surprised he's stepping down.
Thought Iovine was in it for the long run, last I heard he had huge ideas for Apple Music.
Im surprised he stood this long. Jimmy likes moving to the next thing.
Yeah but he seemed passionate about Apple and what he wanted to bring to Apple Music and where he wanted the service to go, so I'm slightly surprised he's stepping down.
He’s quite old, has a lot of money and not a lot of time left to enjoy what he’s earned.
I agree 100%. I remember simpler days at Apple where iTunes properly managed my music library. I could easily find a song, preview it, and buy it. It was easy to sync to my devices.
Then, I subscribed to iTunes Match which resulted in duplicates, wrong metadata, and even some lost songs that are difficult or impossible to replace. I unsubscribed and tried to turn all that junk off, but remnants still haunt me to this day.
Then, Iovine comes along. Operational logic and layouts began to change faster than I could keep up. Basic features such as the ability to add a song heard on an Apple Radio station to my wish list or immediate purchase disappeared as Apple did everything they could to force me to use the cloud and pay for a perpetual subscription to contain my music. I can no longer review my Apple Radio history to find songs to purchase.
I guess I'm getting old. *le sigh* Time for a walk-in bathtub, a LifeAlert, a HurryCane, and a Jitterbug phone.
Yes, my music collection was once well-organized and while iTunes tried to do a bit too much, I was pretty happy with it as well. Then, they started ruining it, piece by piece. Then they went to Apple Music and pretty much forced us all to comply, further ruining pretty much everything but music streaming (which, yes, is nice at times). But, the interface is a nightmare, and my music collection is no longer really a collection... it's a mess.
I agree 100%. I remember simpler days at Apple where iTunes properly managed my music library. I could easily find a song, preview it, and buy it. It was easy to sync to my devices.
Then, I subscribed to iTunes Match which resulted in duplicates, wrong metadata, and even some lost songs that are difficult or impossible to replace. I unsubscribed and tried to turn all that junk off, but remnants still haunt me to this day.
Then, Iovine comes along. Operational logic and layouts began to change faster than I could keep up. Basic features such as the ability to add a song heard on an Apple Radio station to my wish list or immediate purchase disappeared as Apple did everything they could to force me to use the cloud and pay for a perpetual subscription to contain my music. I can no longer review my Apple Radio history to find songs to purchase.
I guess I'm getting old. *le sigh* Time for a walk-in bathtub, a LifeAlert, a HurryCane, and a Jitterbug phone.
Yes, my music collection was once well-organized and while iTunes tried to do a bit too much, I was pretty happy with it as well. Then, they started ruining it, piece by piece. Then they went to Apple Music and pretty much forced us all to comply, further ruining pretty much everything but music streaming (which, yes, is nice at times). But, the interface is a nightmare, and my music collection is no longer really a collection... it's a mess.
Iovine showed up at your house with a gun and forced you to sign up for Apple Music too?
fastasleep said: Iovine showed up at your house with a gun and forced you to sign up for Apple Music too?
Metaphorically, yes. It was the only solution to keep the family members - with metaphorical bonfires and pitchforks - away until I can find some better solution. And, we were all quite happy with the solution we had previously until Apple wrecked it (purposely).
fastasleep said: Iovine showed up at your house with a gun and forced you to sign up for Apple Music too?
Metaphorically, yes. It was the only solution to keep the family members - with metaphorical bonfires and pitchforks - away until I can find some better solution. And, we were all quite happy with the solution we had previously until Apple wrecked it (purposely).
Comments
We don’t know exactly how much Beats has made Apple so far because it’s lumped into their “other” category... but when Apple bought them in 2014 they were making about $300 million in revenue; unless you really think they went on to increase that by a tenfold the next year- Apple obviously didn’t make their money back the next year. Tbh, it is incredibly likely that they haven’t yet.
It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that they could recoup a $3 billion investment in a single year... were that possible, Beats would been valued MUCH higher. That’s pretty much how the market works... the value was ascertained based on both their current AND estimated immediate future sales.
Lovines "music culture" isn't someone else's. Andre Youngs version of music culture isn't someone else's.
Music culture is something you you don't understand. It's like saying Apple needs to buy a movie distribution and hire someone who knows movie culture.
It may sound good at first. But then doing so obscures the simplicity that was already there and forces one persons ideals on everyone.
Case in point was Apple Music. People didn't want the mess that was. So Apple ended up simplifying along the lines of iTunes.
People dont want to buy to buy someone else's taste. They just want "1,000 songs in their pocket" with a variety of tastes they choose.
And guess what Apple just bought that really discover music? Shazam.
Read and Listen to everything Iovine has said publicly, if he said what he meant was Music, then I guarantee that his way of "Music" doesn't work. And it kind of shows because he hasn't been saying "The Next Song" for a long time.
Apple has always been about user experience, Apple gave Iovine the money, market share, and time to show his way of discovering Music is great and works. But Market doesn't buy it. Shazam won, by a wide margin.
I dont know why everyone is pointing the finger at Eddy. Even If Planet of Apps was his fault ( there are now writings that it was actually Iovine's role ), then I think the 4K Movie Apple TV pricing and free upgrade got him covered. Eddy still has great strength at negotiation.
So this means he joined Apple in 2024?
Then, I subscribed to iTunes Match which resulted in duplicates, wrong metadata, and even some lost songs that are difficult or impossible to replace. I unsubscribed and tried to turn all that junk off, but remnants still haunt me to this day.
Then, Iovine comes along. Operational logic and layouts began to change faster than I could keep up. Basic features such as the ability to add a song heard on an Apple Radio station to my wish list or immediate purchase disappeared as Apple did everything they could to force me to use the cloud and pay for a perpetual subscription to contain my music. I can no longer review my Apple Radio history to find songs to purchase.
I guess I'm getting old. *le sigh* Time for a walk-in bathtub, a LifeAlert, a HurryCane, and a Jitterbug phone.
its time one for a deep iOS 7 style redesign and fucking make CarPlay on app so it will gain wider adoption and work whether your head unit works or not ...