“With the announcement of Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics now in our rearview mirror, many are trying to figure out what exactly the company bought with its $2.6 billion,” Jon Maples writes for Re/code. “Some have speculated that it could be the premium headphones or the potential of the streaming-music service that attracted Apple to Beats, but during the Code Conference last week, CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the unique talents of the company leaders were also a major factor in acquiring the firm.”
“The skills of Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine and co-founder Dr. Dre are legendary in recorded music. But this is a watershed moment for digital music. Apple might have hired talent from the music industry, but it hadn’t put someone of Iovine’s caliber in a leadership position,” Maples writes. “Nor has anyone in digital music, for that matter. The operating mode has always been technologists first, music second, with extremely mixed results.”
“Although Eddy Cue says there has been no reset since the end of the Jobsian Era, hiring two guys with resumes like Iovine and Dre sure seems like the beginning of a new Apple,” Maples writes. “Beyond the gravitas of Iovine and Dre, there’s another talent coming on board in Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers, a talented digital marketer who has spent a great deal of his career figuring out how to exploit new media channels to build revenue streams for artists.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
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