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Beats president Luke Wood is stepping down
Apple Music chief Oliver Schusser is taking over as head of Beats.
Apple nixes Monster's licensing over Beats lawsuit
Monster's lawsuit against Beats Electronics last January has come back to bite it now that Beats is an Apple subsidiary. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has killed Monster's official licensing agreement deader than that reported Beats WiFi speaker. Monster has been producing licensed accessories (lightning cables, headphones and whatnot) since 2005. Plus, it's reportedly paid more than $12 million in licensing fees since 2008 for the honor of selling "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad" devices, some of which retailed in Apple stores.
Beats' new Solo2 headphones sound way better than they feel
After the news broke yesterday of Apple officially acquiring Dr. Dre's headphone and music streaming business, Beats isn't putting the new product announcements on hold. The success of the brand is without question, and its most popular set of cans just got a refresh. This is the Beats Solo²: a redesigned on-ear model with re-tuned audio that does quite a bit to combat the "too much bass" argument.
Apple acquires Beats Electronics for $3 billion
Apple is making things official: Dr. Dre's Beats Electronics belongs to Cupertino, and it cost them $3 billion. Rumors had circulated that CEO Tim Cook was interested in nabbing up the audio accessory and music-streaming outfit, corroborated by a beer-drenched video in which Dre himself declared that he had become "the first billionaire in hip-hop." And now, after Financial Times had already let the cat out of the bag, we have Apple's side of the story. As expected, co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre (Andre Young) will join Cook and VP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, but their exact job titles haven't been revealed just yet.
Beats Electronics unplugs HTC with $265 million share buyback
Looks like the rumors were true. HTC announced today that Beats Electronics will buy back the remaining 25 percent stake it had in the headphone maker for $265 million, all but bringing to an end a two-year partnership that has never really worked out. It's quite a bit of cash for HTC, after it took a 50.1 percent share of Beats for $300 million in 2011, later agreeing to sell a 25 percent stake back to its partner just shy of its one-year anniversary. Beats, on the other hand, has recently embarked on a global expansion, broadening its product lines beyond headphones and its exclusive mobile partnership with HTC to include speakers, in-car audio systems, and soon an online music streaming service. Dr Dre. and Co. are rumored to be lining up a new investor that has the funds to help boost its growth. HTC said it will "continue to partner [with Beats] as future opportunities arise" but remains silent on its reasons to sell. It's strange how things turn out: not long ago we'd have guessed HTC would be the success and Beats the fly-by-night. Now, it appears those roles have been reversed.
WSJ: Beats Electronics looking to end HTC partnership
Whatever you feel about Beats' audio, you can't help but think that the company's partnership with HTC hasn't really worked out. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Dr. Dre and Co. are planning to buy back the phone maker's remaining 25 percent stake in the business -- just a year after HTC reduced its stake by half. Either way, we're hoping that this potential separation helps HTC get back to winning ways and frees up Dr. Dre to resume prescribing those pills he's now so fond of.
Beats unveils refreshed Studio headphones with 20-hour battery, improved comfort
You haven't forgotten about Dre, have you? His Beats Studio headphones -- the ones that started the whole celebrity-endorsed portable-audio craze in 2008 -- are finally getting a full-on revamp. Well into its post-Monster life, Beats Electronics has addressed the chief complaints of the original. An extension of a modernized silhouette, the new Studio is 13 grams lighter (263g), with improved padding and ergonomics to provide better comfort. Better yet, these over-ear cans pack a headband that won't snap so easily during extreme bends. Updated noise-cancellation tech enables the Studio to automatically adjust depending on your surroundings -- it even intensifies the effect for further noise reduction when the cable (which naturally features an in-line remote and mic) isn't plugged in. The days of needing to carry an extra pack of Duracells are gone too; the Li-Ion battery promises 20 hours of music playback. Meanwhile, five LEDs display juice levels and an automatic power control keeps the cells from draining if you forget to turn 'em off. The company's new DSP, Beats Acoustic Engine (BAE), aims for a voicing of "balance, accuracy and emotion," and the cans apparently leak out less sound to those around you. So, is it more than just a new take on the bass-heavy S-curve that's managed to "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" for five years? You can find out this August for the admission price of $300, in your choice of black, white or red.
Beats by Dre Pill portable Bluetooth speaker officially drops, we take one per the Dr. and go ears-on (video)
It's official. Aside from letting loose its first set of headphones post-Monster for the Executive types, Beats Electronics has set its sights on nabbing the portable Bluetooth audio crown from Jawbone's Jambox. You'll recall this hitting the FCC a bit ago, but today the Dr. is officially ready to offer you his remedy for on-the-go wireless audio with the $200 Pill, an NFC-equipped portable Bluetooth 2.1 speaker. Coming in your choice red, black or white, the cylindrical system is loaded with a quartet of 1-inch drivers, and supports codecs including Apt-X and AAC. An internal battery is said to provide about seven hours of listening at around 75-percent volume (80 decibels), and the unit can be charged via its Micro-USB input. Notably, an auto-off feature turns the unit off after 30 minutes if no audio is streamed to it. As you'd expect, the Pill features a front-facing on-board mic for use as a speakerphone, physical volume buttons and power button, as well as a 3.5mm input if you'd like to play sans Bluetooth. We're also pleased to notice that the diminutive system also features a 3.5 output if you'd like to send the audio out to another audio ware. The Pill comes with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, a USB to Micro-USB cable for charging with an included wall adapter and, lastly, a carrying shell case that can be hooked to a bag. We've been able to spend about an hour with the system, and we've frankly come away very impressed. The unit feels very sturdy, with a stiff metal grille and soft-touch coating around the rest of its exterior. It feels very comfortable to hold in a hand, and will easily fit in a jacket pocket. Actually, one of our only initial complaints is that the included carrying shell doesn't leave any room for the included cables. All of the buttons have a soft, slightly clicky tactility, which also aids to its premium feel. Using it initially alongside one of Beats' on-hand Jamboxes in a wired A/B comparison, the Jambox came out sounding like a distorted, rumbling mess up against the Pill -- we even had a rep bring out a second unit confirm that it wasn't a dud. If that wasn't enough, the Pill also managed to get much louder, staying fairly clean (in comparison), and without rumbling on the table as the Jambox did very slightly. As a triple-check measure, we later came up with a similar outcome with our in-house unit of Logitech's $99 UE mobile boombox -- a speaker we find comparable in sound, if slightly better, than the Jambox. %Gallery-168433% In what could be viewed as slightly ironic, the Pill has a voicing that edges toward the flatter side of things, rather than pumping out exorbitant amounts of bass. It's not to say that it can't reproduce bass at all, it's just not the focus here. This flatter output seems to be a big part of what keeps it from distorting, but we should be clear, that the audio here is many times better still on the Pill. Pleasantly, the speakers are also angled up slightly, which makes for a noticeably more natural listening experience. Our only other concern for the time being is that the Bluetooth connection with our iPhone 5 did crackle occasionally like a vinyl record, but it's too early to say if the issue will be consistent during future use. We're still a ways off from being able to definitively give you a thumbs up on the Pill, but -- at least, initially, it seems like it's easily blowing the Jambox and similar speakers out of the water. Like the Executive headphones, the Pill is available today at Beats stores and other retailers -- check out our video hands-on after the break for a better look.
Beats buyout of MOG worth $14 million, splits company not-so-neatly into two
More official details are emerging from Beats Electronics' acquisition of MOG, and they paint a considerably messier picture of the deal than we saw just a day ago. HTC (which has a big stake in Beats) has confirmed that the move into streaming music was worth $14 million -- not a whole lot considering that MOG had raised $33 million through its entire independent lifetime. The low price might come as the result of Beats being very surgical with its deal. The Jimmy Iovine- and Dr. Dre-founded outfit is taking control of the core audio service as a separately-managed company, while the ad and music blog components are mostly left untouched. MOG's loss of independence is coming on a very ignominious note as a result, but it could be good news for subscribers anxious about the service's future as well as HTC phone owners wondering just where Sense UI's Beats integration might go next.
Beats Electronics gets official with MOG acquisition, makes it an honest music streaming service
The writing's been on the wall for some time now, with this having been considered a done-deal back in March, but now the two parties involved are going public. Beats Electronics, the house that Dre built, is acquiring the MOG music streaming service, adding a little content to its brightly-colored can offerings. No word on cost, but MOG is said to have raised $33 million in funding to date, so that might give you a ballpark figure. It's also unclear how or whether Beats-investor HTC might be involved in this new relationship, but if recent happenings are any indication, don't go expecting too much on that front.
Monster and Beats Electronics discontinue partnership, audiophiles rejoice
Color us surprised, but word on the street is that Monster and Beats By Dr. Dre are soon going to be a thing of the past. After years of pumping out fashion-forward, bass and treble pumping headphones that (debatably) changed the landscape of personal audio products -- and spawned a slew of imitators -- both companies have reportedly decided not to renew their five-year contract. Businessweek notes that two sources have confirmed that disagreements over "revenue share" and "who deserved the most credit for the line's success" stemmed the decision between the companies -- not surprisingly, Beats Electronics wanted more of both. In the followup, Monster will pump out eight new headphone lineups this year independently. Monster is noted to have brought in 60% of its own revenue from Beats by Dre, and now plans to shift its focus on older demographics, such as executive types, which the brand never exactly catered to. Notably, Businessweek also states that Beats Electronics will retain the rights to the headphone's iconic design, sound-signature and branding. Considering Beats' partnerships reign far with companies like HP and HTC, things probably won't be all doom and gloom for the company -- but the amount of time left to pick up your very own JustBeats likely just got very slim.
HTC Vigor with 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and Beats sighted in Dutch online store (update: it's a fake)
Not much is known about the HTC Vigor, but if the above image is accurate, we have more than a wagonload to look forward to. A supposed render and spec list of the new superphone showed up on The Phone House, a Dutch online retailer, and was quietly taken off the site at a later time. According to the site, the Vigor will have a 4.3-inch HD display with 1280 x 720 resolution; it'll also offer a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, Android 2.3.4, and integrated Beats Technology -- which would make the Vigor the first labor of HTC's latest purchasing decision. There's no word on if the device will have LTE inside, though Verizon docs indicated previously that it's geared up to be the Thunderbolt's replacement sometime this fall. This time, let's get that battery life figured out, okay? Update: The marketing manager of The Phone House came out in response to the screenshot, declaring it to be a fake and explaining why the image is wrong. Feel free to check out the More Coverage link to get the full scoop. Otherwise, let's move along -- nothing to see here.
Beats Electronics' Jimmy Iovine: 'we have got to get to the phone'
The HTC teleconference announcing its $300 million partnership with Beats Electronics just wrapped, and we were able to grab a few tidbits that weren't so clearly evident in last night's press release. The largest questions HTC CEO Peter Chou and Beats head honcho Jimmy Iovine fielded were focused on the effects of the purchase and why it happened. Neither Chou nor Iovine shared many specifics, but we learned that the two companies will be deeply committed in a "special" and "exclusive" relationship, which Iovine referred to as a "marriage." In discussing the possible deal, he mentioned that Beats felt a need of urgency to penetrate the mobile marketplace and were bent on making it happen with HTC: "we have GOT to get to the phone...this marriage expedites that process." Computer and phone companies alike are realizing that they need to upgrade the (currently subpar) audio experience in their products, he said, and we should expect to see many of these businesses launching stellar improvements in sound quality over the next three months. In answer to what HTC is looking for in terms of ROI, Chou discussed the desire to have more differentiation in the market, in terms of the branding and technology the purchase will bring to its products; he also told us that the investment will generate several hundred millions of dollars in return beginning later this year. Rather than solely focusing on headsets, HTC plans to integrate the Beats tech completely into the product portfolio. Exactly how extensive that consolidation will be remains a mystery for now; since the effects of this deal will come to fruition sometime this fall, however, we doubt we'll have to wait terribly long to find out.
HTC to buy a chunk of Beats Electronics, keep Dr. Dre in a lab with a pen and a pad
HTC's been making money hand over fist lately, and it looks like all that cash is burning a hole in its pocket. First, the Taiwanese company bought cloud services firm Dashwire and now it's looking to buy the lion's share of Beats Electronics. For a cool $300 million, HTC plans to up the ante in mobile audio with the expertise of Dr. Dre baked into its future handsets. The deal is set to become final later this year, and we'll see phones packing the big red 'b' this autumn. Feel free to peep the PR while you wait for 'em to drop.
