Jimmy Iovine is a great record producer.

As early as the 80 's, Jimmy Iovine was an excellent record producer before the founding of Beats Electronics, and he produced many hit albums, like Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Tom Petty's damn the torpedoes. In order to keep improving, Iovine installed a radio transmitter tower in his a&m studio. At the end of the day, he would send the remix of the day through his radio station. Then he drove around the city with his car and listened. He wants to feel his music in the same way as his fans, in order to finally achieve the perfect sound.

30 years later, Iovine and his partner, the headset company beats, created by rap godfather Dr.Dre, have conquered the market and been bought by Apple at $3 billion trillion. How did they do that?

In fact, there are a lot of high-end headphones before the beats, but most of them aim at niche needs such as music enthusiasts. According to the data provided by NPD Group, high-end headphones earned less than One-third of all headphone sales by 2012. For average consumers, the 20-dollar apple headset is good enough.

Headphones have been around for so long, why now? Why this acquisition? Why beats?

The answer consists of two parts, brands, and loud voices – closely linked to the creators of music makers who are adept at meeting the needs of mainstream audiences, making albums and packaging singers. In the final analysis, they make headphones as albums, not like ordinary businessmen, who just want to get into the market.

Brand

Beats's product lead, TJ Grewal, believes Beats's knack for success lies in their particular way of thinking, not just to allow the headphones to play a pleasant sound, but to make "sound" cooler.

"Their brand gives consumers a sense of identity," Benjamin Arnold, an analyst with NPD Group, explains all this. Headphones are functional devices, but also fashion accessories. Beats bold colors and more modern industrial designs make them different from other companies such as Sony, Bose or Bowers & Wilkins. The headphones, like those made by the little Emperor LeBron James and Lady Gaga, have also led to celebrity. In this way, even if the price of 100 dollars, the children want to have one.

Beats's newest headset continues to put the brand first. The recently released $199.95 Solo2 offers more colors from bright pink to elegant blue. It also features beats, vigorous bass and rounded treble, but many people find this headset uncomfortable to wear. Just hanging it around the neck looks really cool, which explains why this series of ear opportunities is so popular.

In another series, the same $199.95 Powerbeats 2 wireless headset is the Beats's first Bluetooth sports headset. Its compact structure, light weight, wireless and anti-sweat, in-ear stability, the movement will not fall off. One hour is not a burden at all. One charge can be used for six hours, fully enough to accompany you through the boring and painful exercise time. But if they are used as headphones for everyday use, the duration is not ideal.

The impact of beats on the industry is enormous. Sales of high-end headphones have increased to nearly half the overall headphone market, compared with just one-third of Beats's start-up. In fact, 95% of the growth in headphone revenue comes from high-end headphones. Beats is catching up with the rapid growth of the mobile business when he comes in. The boom in smartphones and tablets has driven the consumption of high-end headphones, which last year sold more than $1 billion trillion, with beats accounting for 61%. The most important factor affecting consumers ' choice of products, according to NPD Research, is the brand, followed by the quality of sound.

Quality

Sound quality is the most controversial aspect of Beats. Many commentators have argued that Beats is too noisy, the bass is too strong, and the overall sound quality is much lower than the competitive product at the same price. "Oh, it's a hip-hop headset, it's widely accepted by singers, and it's so popular anyway," Grewal said. ”

Grewal that the characteristics that critics belittle are actually the company's intention, which comes from the DNA of creator Iovine and Dre. "Other high-end headphones, always want to make the frequency response curve very straight, no matter what format music is played, it is pushed flat." But beats the opposite.

"Beats's headphones want people to enjoy the music better, so that consumers can maximize the mood in the music, as our founders do when mixing tracks," he said. We play the sound in a different way than the others, and we want the sound effect to be closer to the original state, through the headphones, so you hear the same as the singer sings in the studio, "Grewal explains.

Some rivals are trying to replicate beats, but just as hot records are hard to predict, hip-hop, celebrity headphones don't necessarily mean big sales. Ludacris and Cent (both American rappers) also have their own brand headphones, with the same emphasis on appearance and heavy bass. But no one is lucky to reproduce beats's success.

Now with Apple as a partner, Beats should be able to take a step closer to the competition.