Apple Only Wants Beats for Dr. Dre and Iovine

When news first broke that Apple was in talks to acquire Beats for $3.2 billion, there was one simple question on everyone’s minds: why? We’ve tried answering that question – Is it to get the Beats logo on future iPhones? Or the Apple logo on Beats headphones? Our own editor-in-chief Jeff Weisbein speculated that hiring Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine was one of the key motivators for Apple’s acquisition of the company.

A new post on TechCrunch, however, seems to have confirmation of Jeff’s hypothesis: Apple wants Beats because that would bring onboard company cofounders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, both legends in music, fashion, and culture. Having Dre and Iovine on the payroll would help Apple’s efforts to work out more deals with artists, possibly like last year’s exclusive album release from megastar Beyoncé.

An unnamed, “well-placed source” offered the reasons behind the acquisition, adding, “They want Jimmy and they want Dre. He’s got fashion and culture completely locked up.”

INdeed, Dre and Iovine have managed to make Beats a major brand in terms of having cultural cachet, despite the fact that most serious reviews of the company’s headphones haven’t been overwhelmingly positive. Add Beats’ streaming service to the mix – which, as we’ve discovered from recent reports, hasn’t been doing too well – and you’ve got a whole bunch of benefits for Apple that seems to justify the $3.2 billion acquisition price.

And even though Beats hasn’t been performing as well as the company would’ve liked, there are a number of other value adds there, too. For instance, Trent Reznor, the front man of Nine Inch Nails, happens to be the company’s Chief Creative Officer. The service has also signed licensing agreements with several independent labels. Altogether, Reznor as well as all those licensing agreements will go to Apple, giving the company another arrow in its quiver in the battle for music streaming supremacy.

The TechCrunch post says that since news of the acquisition first got out earlier this month, the deal has been threatened more than a few times. Right now, the unnamed source providing these insights says, with “70 percent certainty,” that the deal will go through as planned.

[Source: TechCrunch]