Apple met with Beats regarding streaming music service partnership

[Shawn Knight]

Apple recently met with Beats Electronics, the audio firm founded by hip-pop producer Dr Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, to discuss a potential partnership involving the company’s planned music streaming service.  CEO Tim Cook and Internet products chief Eddy Cue reportedly met with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine during a trip to Los Angeles late last month according to sources familiar with the situation as reported by Reuters.

Sources speaking directly with Reuters said the meeting was informational and covered a wide range of topics related to music. Specifically, Cook showed interest in Beats’ music streaming business model and their rollout plans although the two sides did not discuss any specifics relating to a deal.

Naturally, both companies declined to comment when probed by the publication.

Interestingly enough, Beats is already locked into a separate partnership with Taiwanese handset maker HTC, one of Apple’s rivals in the mobile devices market. It seems unlikely that the deal between Beats and HTC would have any bearing on a strategic partnership with Apple, however.

Beats purchased streaming music provider MOG last summer for an undisclosed amount of money. Iovine and company reportedly selected MOG due to the fact that they were the first streaming service to offer their entire catalog in 320Kbps.

Earlier this year, Beats announced Project Daisy – their plans to take what is left of MOG and develop it into a new streaming audio service. Topspin boss Ian Rogers was appointed CEO and the goal is to focus on mobile first but outside of that, details still remain unknown.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/51855-apple-met-with-beats-regarding-streaming-music-service-partnership.html

 

[Guest]

Cool, I have beats on my laptop and so far its the best quality sound I've herd from a computer (through good headphones). I've also been looking at buying a htc phone and the beats logo makes it alot more attractive of a purchase. I love music quality the better the quality no matter what the platform it is on the more likely I will buy it. Better quality sound and music is a better selling point for me than Bigger screens on a mobile phone and faster cpus.

 

[TS-56336]

This would be a huge leap forward from iTunes match, which forces you to manually delete a song after you've streamed it. As a result of this 'mild inconvenience,' I use Spotify 99.9% of the time, even to stream music I already own.

 

[ShadowDeath]

Something else they can sue HTC over no doubt.

 

[Guest]

@Guest #1
You realize that the Beats branding on phones and laptops is just a (crappy) software equalizer right? The hardware is the same.

 

[LNCPapa]

Hehe... Beats. People buying an image instead of quality audio. Guess there's nothing wrong with buying an image if that's what you're actually trying to do.

 

[Guest]

Guest said:
@Guest #1
You realize that the Beats branding on phones and laptops is just a (crappy) software equalizer right? The hardware is the same.



I wasn't sure if someone was going to chime-in and supply this information. Though I needed a good lawl from Guest #1

 

[Guest]

People who say beats are just an equalizer are actually wrong. They also design the speaker setups and I'm guessing they also design the amplifier to power those speakers. The reason the sound quality is so good on the laptop is because the amplifier is amazing and when you combine it with the top quality equalizer it makes it even better.

if you do a quick google on what beats audio is on a hp laptop here is what you get.

1. Redesigned headphone jack with better insulation, hence less ground noise.
2. Discrete headphone amp to reduce crosstalk. This is also said to be “more powerful”
3. Isolated audio circuitry.
4. Software audio profiles which I think means some sort of equalizer.

Whatever the fudge they do to make it sound amazing I don't really care but at the end of the day IT SOUNDS AMAZING! Best sound I've ever herd from a pc ever and I have hundreds of dollars worth of external sound equipment on my pc at home.

 

[Guest]

Apparently I'm wrong about the speakers they are designed by hp but there not that great anyway. Were the beats audio shines is with your own good quality headphones. Beats audio adds a higher quality headphone jack and a better headphone amp + the equalizer is awesome.