Talking ‘Beats’ with Dr. Dre

In the past decade, the digital revolution in the music industry has exploded. Apple led the pack and changed the way music is listened to, stored and purchased today.

With all the convenience of digital music, there has been one major downside.

Dr. Dre
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Dr. Dre

Jimmy Iovine, Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records said, “sound has been degraded because of the digital revolution, really to point of no return.”

In order for us to store music files, the master files have been compressed over and over again.

Dr. Dre and Iovine teamed up and co-founded “Beats” by Dr. Dre - a line of specially designed high-end headphones.

They just announced a deal at Fenway Park yesterday, a Red Sox version of his “Beats,” priced at $349 ($299 for other Beats headphones.)

That’s a pretty hefty price tag for headphones since headphones typically come free with an iPod or any device you purchase.

That’s precisely the problem. Iovine pointed out that people would spend $300 – $400 on an iPod and have a 30-cents headphone to go with it. “That’s like getting the Avatar movie and watching it through a portable TV,” said Iovine.

“You’re not getting any of the emotion, any of the feel that people are getting in a recording studio. The sounds through these earbuds are destroying portable music,” Iovine said.

Beats has everything to do with what Dre does, “sound.”

It not only has the good sound, it also has Dre’s style to boot.

Dre is convinced that they are the best sounding headphones out there right now.

“Once people hear the difference with Beats and other headphones out there they’ll spend the money for it. Everybody that hears it loves them,” said Dre.


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