Apple is trying to strike a $3.2 billion deal with hip-hop producer Dr. Dre and Jimmy Lovine (co-founder of Interscope Records and Beats by Dre). If it goes through, the deal will make Dr.Dre the richest man in hip-hop (Beyonce and Jay-Z have a net worth of $900 million in case you were wondering). After starting in 2008, Beats have become a big social trend for music lovers everywhere. As of 2013, the company has a revenue of $1.5 billion.
People are wondering why Apple would buy Beats. Some theories say that it could be Beats’ demographic or their quality that appealed to the tech giant. “I think it’s because they’re popular,” said second-year animation student Nathan Barnard. “They want to tap into that market of people buying expensive, luxury items.” The future of the collaboration between Apple and Beats isn’t clear right now, but it could mean something huge for future products. Third-year game design student Ajay Ganapathy said, “It’s hard to know what they want to do because Apple is known for withholding secret information. But it might be about patents? There’s always something about patents.”
Meanwhile, two college dropouts are currently trying to raise money to promote their own headphones. Their headphones, Wearhaus ARC, were influenced by Europe’s popular silent discos where music is played through wireless headphones instead of speakers. Wearhaus ARC is designed to wirelessly transmit audio to a friend’s headphones in real time. They consider themselves to be the first headphones for “social listening.”
The response to Wearhaus Arc seems promising. “I like that they have the sharing feature and they’re not just another pair of headphones,” said second-year graphic design student Vania Ho. “They’re appealing to more than good sound quality.” Wearhaus Arc is available for the price of $150. However, there’s a deal to get $30 discounted from the pre-order price by using the code: SCAD. With the price of Wearhus ARC being half of Beats, it’s possible that people may opt for the cheaper, more innovative of the two. Will Beats change their product after the Apple merger? Will Wearhaus ARC rock the audio world’s socks off? It sounds like a possibility.
