NIN-Spotting 2014

[sheepdean]

I just don't see Beats Electronics as being very important to Apple. This deal was about Beats Music, along with bringing Iovine and Dre to Apple.

...Apple are an electronics company, you know that?

[HurtinMinorKey]

...Apple are an electronics company, you know that?

I've seen a lot of speculation on the Apple forums. The best i can come up with is that the royalty rates for Beats music are transferable, and therefore very attractive. This notion of paying billions for Dre and Iovine is laughable. Those guys are just corporate pirates like everyone else at their country club.

The Beats-Monster saga:
http://gizmodo.com/5981823/beat-by-d...lost-the-world

[Arkadin]

...Apple are an electronics company, you know that?

Tell me what is innovative about Beats electronics and why Apple, whose success has relied on innovation, would think highly of Beats electronics division.

[sheepdean]

Tell me what is innovative about Beats electronics and why Apple, whose success has relied on innovation, would think highly of Beats electronics division.

There's nothing innovative about apple's current headphone range (or debatably about much of their hardware), it's all about branding, and the branding of beats electronics is strong.

[allegro]

I would imagine he's getting not a great deal of that 3b - but he works for Beats (as does Rob), and so technically he will work for Apple.

Apple's employee memo says "along with their team of employees" but it's not clear who "their" is; Apple's or Beat's. This whole thing will be restructured and absorbed under Apple, Beats current investors will be paid off, any patent ownership will be transferred, but the Beats "brand" name will be used under Apple ownership. That's why it was announced that Dr and Iovine will be Apple employees, not under Beats but under Apple, proper. See this. I dunno, the more I read this memo as a memo TO Apple employees, it does look as if a "team of Beats employees" is coming over to Apple under Eddy and Phil. "Employees" might not mean officers, directors and creative types, though. We shall see, I guess.

[WorzelG]

Tim Cook has released a memo to apple people suggesting the beats subscription thing will remain as is
http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/57...mployees-beats

[roolfdriht]

The WSJ just published a piece that pegs the Beats Music valuation at ~$500mm (apologies in advance if the full piece is paywalled).

http://online.wsj.com/articles/apple...ightTopStories

Here's what it has to say about that entity's ownership, including Trent:

Some investors, such as billionaire Len Blavatnik, whose holding company Access Industries owns Warner Music Group, had invested only in the music-streaming service. Beats Music's chief executive, Ian Rogers, and its chief creative officer, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, both have stakes in Beats Music but don't own stock in Beats Electronics.

Others are more heavily invested on the electronics side. Carlyle Group spent $500 million last year on an approximate 30% stake in the headphone division, and a 5% stake in the music service, which was reduced after Mr. Blavatnik's group bought in. When Carlyle purchased its stake last year, it valued the entire Beats empire at between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

[gorast]

So, it looks like Trent's not really set to benefit all that much from this. Makes sense.

[jessamineny]

So, it looks like Trent's not really set to benefit all that much from this. Makes sense.

He owns a stake in something that sold for $500 million. How can you say that? o_0

Even if he had only a 1% stake, that's 5 million.

[allegro]

"both have stakes in Beats Music but don't own stock in Beats Electronics."

Own stock? It's an LLC, there is no stock. Wtf.

Before you all go start up your cash registers, remember all of the Beats investors who had to be paid off, first, in this deal.

[Charmingly Miserable]

USA Today called Trent an "Oscar winning metal rocker." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[sick among the pure]

USA Today called Trent an "Oscar winning metal rocker." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Well, since his first Grammy was for metal, I could see why. It's really kinda hard to pick a genre for Trent, to be fair...

[sheepdean]

Better than industrial

[Charmingly Miserable]

It's really kinda hard to pick a genre for Trent, to be fair...

Dreamy synth pop.

[Arkadin]

So, it looks like Trent's not really set to benefit all that much from this. Makes sense.

The WSJ article also says the payment breakdown was largely an accounting issue, meaning it was not indicative of the importance of the electronics division versus Beat Music. And if Apple wanted to completely free up Iovine and Dre, which is still somewhat mystifying but evidently true, presumably it had to buy both Beats Electronics and Beat Music. Hard to speculate what exactly Trent's future is with Apple, but Rob did tweet today that he (Rob) is still employed by Beats Music.

[NotoriousTIMP]

Skip to the 1h 10m mark to here them talk briefly about Starfuckers Inc

http://inthemix.com/news/drop-everyt...ffee-run/22793

[Arkadin]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonyk...p-store-traps/

One name that has not been mentioned much in all of the coverage of the Beats acquisition, is Nine Inch nails frontman and soundtrack composer Trent Reznor, who has served as Chief Creative Officer for the Beats Music project. A lot of Reznor’s ideas and sly humor are evident in the result , and this makes it the kind of app that Apple would have a hard time making on its own. Although Apple products have a style (thank you Steve Jobs and Jony Ive) they are almost universally too tasteful to have a personality. This is something that Beats Music clearly has. It remains to be seen how much Jimmy Iovine will engage Reznor with projects at Apple—when Reznor is not “screaming his lungs out” (as Rolling Stone put it) on tour with NIN, that is.

[Leviathant]

Skip to the 1h 10m mark to here them talk briefly about Starfuckers Inc

http://inthemix.com/news/drop-everyt...ffee-run/22793

Unless I'm missing something at 1:10 they're going through drive through, and then they change the card on the GoPro, and then they go "Starfuckers, huh uhuhuh". I had watched too much to bother going back to earlier than 1:10

[BRoswell]

Unless I'm missing something at 1:10 they're going through drive through, and then they change the card on the GoPro, and then they go "Starfuckers, huh uhuhuh". I had watched too much to bother going back to earlier than 1:10

There's also a bit around fifty minutes in where Adrift And At Peace plays while they're shuffling through songs.

[screwdriver]

Unless I'm missing something at 1:10 they're going through drive through, and then they change the card on the GoPro, and then they go "Starfuckers, huh uhuhuh". I had watched too much to bother going back to earlier than 1:10

he says something about manson working with trent, something something interesting, and then that's it

[ecirb]

Manning was once Trent's neighbor. I know this is a stretch:

[sheepdean]

I have no idea what that photo is about, but the emblem looks totally neo nazi. It's probably sport, but dat crest.

[piggy]

It's the Nationwide Insurance logo.

[imail724]

Think i just spotted HM on a Google Play commercial

[Krazy]

Manning was once Trent's neighbor.

Huh? I never heard that one before- I'm sure they both lived in NOLA at the same time but actual neighbors is news to me...

[GavinCollins420]

Think i just spotted HM on a Google Play commercial

Yeeeeeeah, I don't think that's HM. Same colours but I can't place the design.

[laz001]

[sheepdean]

For anyone wondering, that site (sickipedia) carries big warnings for racist, sexist and ableist (and every other ist you can think of) content, proceed at your own risk.

[simonn]

Dreamy synth pop.

Was trying to describe NIN to my Mum earlier today. This would have done the trick...

[Arkadin]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...beats/9774915/

Curiously, Beats' chief creative officer, Trent Reznor, the singer-songwriter and producer of Nine Inch Nails fame responsible for Beats' tastemaking, has reportedly left the company.