Apple, Eddie Cue, Music Is Dying, Beats Headphones

Apple Bought Beats Because “Music Is Dying" – ReadWrite: ""Music is dying," said Cue. "It hasn't been growing. You see it in the number of artists. This past year in iTunes, it's the smallest number of new releases we've had in years.""

Myths | The Big Picture: "Sound quality counts. If it did, no one would be wearing the execrable Beats headphones. They sell because they’re a fashion item. This is what is scary about Apple buying Beats. Sure, Apple products always looked cool, but they were also the best, that’s why the company often charged more. But by aligning with a laughable enterprise built on momentary hype they’re squandering brand equity just like Sony, which continued to charge premium prices for me-too products. If you don’t know who you are, how do you plan to succeed in the future? Apple doesn’t have to invent everything, but they ultimately have to do it better than everybody else. So they’re selling mediocre, overpriced headphones and a me-too streaming service that has problems scaling and it shows that the company is creatively bankrupt. Steve Jobs was all about breakthroughs, where’s the breakthrough here?"

Apple's Beats buy the result of executive ignorance -- report - CNET: "The management in particular were pretty much tone-deaf in what Spotify was and that's why they're panicking now," the source told Buzzfeed. "They didn't understand how Spotify worked, which is why they thought iTunes Radio would be a Spotify killer.""

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