Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Jimmy Iovine

Beats Electronics Not Renewing Partnership With Monster

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:36:15 +0000

Beats by Dr. Dre is a company that was founded in 2008 by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Beats by Dr. Dre is a brand of headphones and loud speakers and they worked closely with Monster Cable to manufacture to electronics. “Guys were making headphones that looked like medical equipment,” stated Iovine. Going forward, it appears that Beats by Dr. Dre will not be working with Monster due to financial disagreements.

Monster Cable has been developing the headphones and speakers through a license agreement. Beats by Dr. Dre have been successful as their products have captured about 53% of the $1 billion annual headphone market last year according to NPD Group.

Monster helped design the headphones and they even took credit for the idea. “They wanted to do speakers and I said, ‘The new speaker is the headphone,’?” stated Monster Cable CEO Noel Lee.

Now Monster Cable has to get used to the idea of not working with Beats by Dr. Dre, which will be difficult because 60% of the company’s revenue and profit came from the Beats audio gear. Beats will be retaining the rights to the bass-thumping technology, the brand, and the circular design.

Last year Lee asked half of the company’s 650 employees to come up with Monster-branded headphones because “we’re competing with ourselves” said Lee. “We can be the Apple of the headphones space, with or without Beats.”

[BusinessWeek]

HTC Vigor Believed To First Phone Powered By Beats After The Major Investment

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:47:18 +0000

The HTC Vigor is rumored to be the first handset powered by HTC’s major investment in Beats By Dr. Dre. Specs include a 4.3-inch screen with a 1280×720 resolution, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB onboard storage, 8 megapixel camera with a 2 megapixel forward-facing camera, Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread), and Sense version 3.5. HTC is investing $300 million in Beats by Dr. Dre, the company founded by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.

The investment gave HTC one of the largest stakes in Beats. Beats also works closely with Monster Cable as an investor and they will continue to work with Hewlett Packard for laptop and tablet speakers.

“Getting Beats audio into HTC phones is one of the first things we’re going to do,” Iovine stated in an interview. “We are going to be in business with HTC and they’re going to help us and were going to help them in every way they can. And you’ll see Beats audio in just about every phone or tablet they want it to be in, but they know what we’ve built and respect the brand and will help us continue to innovate and push Beats further.”

HTC and Beats first started talking about working with each other at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this past January. Below is a marketing video of the partnership.

[Gizmodo/LA Times]

Beats By Dr. Dre Being Added To Chrysler Cars [VIDEOS]

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:33:07 +0000

Chrysler Group and Beats By Dr. Dre has announced a new partnership that brings a studio quality experience into cars for the first time. Beats by Dr. Dre will be rolled into the 2012 Chrysler 300S to start. Beats by Dr. Dre founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine had worked closely with the engineering team at Chrysler to design the audio system that contains 10 speakers.

“Our partnership with the Chrysler Group will set the bar for the way music should be heard in cars,” stated Jimmy Iovine, who is also the Chairman of Interscope Geffen-A&M Records. “Beats By Dr. Dre has always been about restoring the emotional music connection between an artist and the listener, and Chrysler vehicles beginning with the Chrysler 300S will let drivers hear music the way the artists intended, replicating the feel and the sound that artists and producers work so hard to achieve.”

Zune Marketing Exec Chris Stephenson Leaving For Universal Music

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:15:29 +0000

Chris Stephenson is a marketing executive for the Microsoft Zune. Stephenson has decided to leave the company in order to take a position with Universal Music Group according to a source with The Wall Street Journal.

It is rumored that Stephenson will be joining as the chief marketing officer at Universal’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records. Stephenson will be reporting to Jimmy Iovine.

Iovine is often credit for passing Eminem’s demo tape to Dr. Dre. Iovine also co-produced the movie 8 Mile. Before Iovine started Interscope, he was an engineer for John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. Iovine also produced albums for Tom Petty, Patti Smith, U2 and Dire Straits.

Stephenson said that he was looking forward to returning to the entertainment industry. Before working at Microsoft, Stephenson was an executive at MTV. Stephenson joined Microsoft around 2006 to help market the Zune.

The Zune has been struggling to compete against the Apple iPod. And Stephenson’s departure comes at a time where Microsoft is close to shipping the Zune HD. The Zune HD is expected to arrive on shelves on September 15.

Stephenson often times compared the iPod to Mount Rainier in Seattle. The snow-covered mountain is just as difficult to climb as it is for Microsoft to compete with the iPod market share.

Eminem’s Publishing Company Takes Universal To Court, Steve Jobs To Testify

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:04:18 +0000

Eminem’s publishing company F.B.T. Productions will finally be appearing in court against Universal Music Group over digital music royalties. The trial will feature witnesses such as Universal Music Group head Jimmy Iovine and Apple CEO Steve Jobs via video. F.B.T. Productions is seeking additional royalties from purchases made through digital music services like iTunes. Eminem himself isn’t expected to appear in court.

Eminem sued Universal based on how much the record company was taking away in digital royalties. If P.B.T. wins the case, it could significantly impact how much the record labels make from online music sales. This past summer, fellow Detroit native artist Kid Rock decided to have his music removed from iTunes because the record labels were already taking away too much money even after iTunes takes their cut.

Eminem’s record company is seeking about $1.3 million to settle the lawsuit. The main defendant in this case is Aftermath Records, the label founded by Eminem’s friend and mentor Dr. Dre. One of Eminem’s singles from his upcoming album broke a digital download record. Eminem’s “Crack a Bottle” featured Dr. Dre and Eminem and had about 418,000 download sales in the first week.

[via The Wrap]