How Beats by Dre became so big 🎧

Humble beginnings to empire status [Highsnobiety]( [Highsnobiety]( Marrying Culture and Technology: The Story of Beats by Dr. Dre Beats has found cultural relevance in most major facets of pop culture, from sports and music to art and fashion. For the past 10 years, the audio brand has occupied a space in the public imagination that very few others have achieved. But how did it all start? [Explore the full story now]( ● CHAPTER ONE: CRAFTING THE SOUND [Highsnobiety]( Let’s go back to when Apple began to release their iPods with a free pair of cheap earbuds that customers were expected to replace. Except people didn’t. Dr. Dre was enraged. The best artists of the generation were getting reduced to 128 kbps MP3s on $1 plastic earbuds. “Man, it’s one thing that people steal my music. It’s another thing to destroy the feeling of what I’ve worked on,” Dre told co-founder Jimmy Iovine. So the pair sought out to make their own headphones with premium sound that challenged the ubiquitous earbuds, once and for all. ● CHAPTER 2: THE HUSTLE [Highsnobiety]( Designing headphones as a fashion accessory was the vacuum Beats sought to fill. The brand started appearing in hundreds of music videos by the likes of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Nicki Minaj. Beats would also go on to collaborate with artists to design stylish capsule releases: Powerbeats with LeBron James, Justbeats with Justin Bieber and more. Its success was on the radar, and in 2014, Apple officially announced that it was buying Beats. This was the tech giant’s largest acquisition to date, and it made Dre one of the richest hip-hop artists/producers/entrepreneurs in history. The company had gone full circle, from targeting the plastic white earbuds to officially merging with its creators. ● CHAPTER 3: STAYING ON TOP [Highsnobiety]( Now financially fortified by Apple, Beats expanded its cultural territory to newer reaches. In 2015, the brand debuted its first high fashion collaboration with Fendi, officially entering the luxury market — and it didn’t stop there. In 2016, Beats collaborated with Alexander Wang, and tapped Olivier Rousteing at Balmain the following year for a limited edition run. In addition to the fashion world, Beats also continued its long-standing relationship with the sports world, teaming up with the likes of Serena Williams and Bayern Munich. In 2018, Beats announced its official partnership with the NBA. [Highsnobiety]( Right out the door, Beats headphones were heralded by hip-hop titans. Part of the brand’s success is due to the fact that there were few artists as universally respected as Dre, and few insiders as deep in the industry as Iovine. The global, billion-dollar success that hip-hop enjoys today was unheard of when Dre first debuted The Chronic in 1992. Simply put, Beats was on the right side of history. It is the sound of today. [learn more now]( ● latest news [Twitter Is Roasting Justin Bieber's Old $10.5 Million ] Twitter Is Roasting Justin Bieber's Old $10.5 Million "Blender" Mansion [A Deep Dive Into Burberry’s Relationship With Hip-Hop] A Deep Dive Into Burberry’s Relationship With Hip-Hop [A New 'Tiger King' Episode Is About to Drop on Netflix] A New 'Tiger King' Episode Is About to Drop on Netflix [In the Studio With Mobilegirl: On Inspiration & Creating Alternate Realities With Music] In the Studio With Mobilegirl: On Inspiration & Creating Alternate Realities With Music [Like on Facebook]( [Follow on Instagram]( [Add on Snapchat]( [Follow on Twitter]( [Subscribe on YouTube]( [Follow on Pinterest]( You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website: [{EMAIL}](. You can [unsubscribe from the list]( or [manage your subscription preferences](. Titel Media GmbH 2020 © Titel Media GmbH, Genthiner Str. 32-34, 10785 Berlin Germany