Dr. Dre’s Beats by Dre Cost An Estimated $14 To Make

[Cupe]

Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre may have built a $3.2 billion empire on a product that probably costs less to make than a haircut.

The New York Times reports that Dr. Dre’s Beats by Dre headphones are inexpensive to make, with headphone designers estimating “the cost of making a fancy headset is as low as $14.”

A pair of Beats by Dre can cost upwards of $450, however the quality of the headphones has always been a concern.

TIME Magazine ranked Beats by Dre as the second to worst headphone brand out of 18 in terms of sound performance last month.

While Beats by Dre may be made for cheap and have questionable sound quality, the brand is a marketing juggernaut.

Beats by Dre owns an 27% of a headphone industry that reported $1.8 billion in sales last year.

Gold.

Source

[wrxfiend]

"headphones aint shit but plastic bricks"

[Kodiak]

I'm surprised they cost that much tbh. After doing one of my Engineering units and looking at cost of some electronic components (ie the coin motor that vibrates your phone costs 2 cents) is amazing just how little shit costs out of China.

[Tomy]

shitty headphones, so i'm not too surprised. Thats a profit margin of about 90% on the base model. bulk coin.

[AlexJ]

shitty headphones, so i'm not too surprised. Thats a profit margin of about 90% on the base model. bulk coin.

'merica

[OxyKon]

shitty headphones, so i'm not too surprised. Thats a profit margin of about 90% on the base model. bulk coin.

'merica

More like smart business planning

[BeatLeSS]

[OxyKon]

Nothing wrong with capitalism

[Scottie]

shitty headphones, so i'm not too surprised. Thats a profit margin of about 90% on the base model. bulk coin.

'merica

probs not 90%, shipping, distributing, marketing, r&d costs all add up. Still a healthy amount of profit per unit sold, but not anything like 90%.

[russell]

Nothing wrong with capitalism

everything is wrong with capitalism

[yizzle]

^

[OxyKon]

so people aren't allowed to be wealthy then

[russell]

so people aren't allowed to be wealthy then

Of course they are but it needs to be weighed up against the ones they keep poor to attain this wealth.

And as it stands the number of poor grossly outweighs the rich and by quite some monetary divide.

I would hazard a guess that the people who are making these beats headphones definitely can't afford a pair and I doubt they'd be able to afford to a buy a pair at the $14 it cost to make them.

Capitalism works for the 1%.

[Cupe]

Wait I thought the 'Nothing wrong with capitalism' comment was a joke

But I see no teef

[LabRat]

i think if there's a market to make money then there's money to be made. i personally think beats aren't anything special for the money they're after, but they're ok. Monster Audio don't exactly make the greatest headphones to start with. all the other leading brands are probably in the same position. i don't believe their headphones cost any more to make

[Cupe]

I don't understand why, if people want 'superior sound' they don't use the same thing industry professionals use..

[LabRat]

Personal preference and how it's marketed. Pioneer did the same thing when they fired up. They got a whole heap of djs on board early and when they got booked they requested pioneer gear. Most of the pioneer stuff is rubbish but it's been recognised over the years and now it's in the mind of every DJ out there. Why not a&h mixers? They're far better than the djm's. Beats are the same. When it comes to the "street" fashion, people go for beats pretty much naturally, as a DJ wants to buy pioneer.

[russell]

Why not a&h mixers? They're far better than the djm's.

agreed.

Also Allen & Heath's are pretty much the standard mixer in Europe.

[Scottie]

so people aren't allowed to be wealthy then

Of course they are but it needs to be weighed up against the ones they keep poor to attain this wealth.

And as it stands the number of poor grossly outweighs the rich and by quite some monetary divide.

I would hazard a guess that the people who are making these beats headphones definitely can't afford a pair and I doubt they'd be able to afford to a buy a pair at the $14 it cost to make them.

Capitalism works for the 1%.

except those damn rich whales are spending more of their money on goods and services that: a) create jobs within those industries on a much larger scale than the average or lower income family could, provide sales tax in the form of GST that goes towards the government, and c) pay much more income tax than the average earner would, and would then be effectively paying for the lower income earner's tax breaks and welfare benefits.

But this isnt the thread for that

[OxyKon]

so people aren't allowed to be wealthy then

Of course they are but it needs to be weighed up against the ones they keep poor to attain this wealth.

And as it stands the number of poor grossly outweighs the rich and by quite some monetary divide.

I would hazard a guess that the people who are making these beats headphones definitely can't afford a pair and I doubt they'd be able to afford to a buy a pair at the $14 it cost to make them.

Capitalism works for the 1%.

except those damn rich whales are spending more of their money on goods and services that: a) create jobs within those industries on a much larger scale than the average or lower income family could, provide sales tax in the form of GST that goes towards the government, and c) pay much more income tax than the average earner would, and would then be effectively paying for the lower income earner's tax breaks and welfare benefits.

But this isnt the thread for that

=D>

[russell]

except those damn rich whales are spending more of their money on goods and services that: a) create jobs within those industries on a much larger scale than the average or lower income family could, provide sales tax in the form of GST that goes towards the government, and c) pay much more income tax than the average earner would, and would then be effectively paying for the lower income earner's tax breaks and welfare benefits.

But this isnt the thread for that

a) - Granted they create jobs but most large scale businesses pay the minimum wage they can get away with. Add to that the cheap labour used to make iphones, nikes etc.... Some of these factories have suicide netting because the conditions are so bad to work in.

- GST, or VAT in the UK - Large companies & multi-nationals do not pay VAT. Starbucks and Tesco being the biggest two that spring to mind. They contribute nothing to the government unless, as happened to starbucks last year, they come under heavy public criticism. In which case they pay a pittance to the government.

c) Surely you must know that rich people do not pay tax? They are the ones who get tax breaks and over and above that hide their money in offshore accounts etc. <-- which they can be penalised for to be fair.

Although to swing the balance of fairness firmly back in the rich court... a prime example of how the rich get away with not paying tax, even when caught evading it, is Bernie Ecclestone's £2 billion tax bill that he got settled at £10 million. I know that if I fill out a tax return and I owe a small amount, say a few hundred pounds, I get harassed and threatened with court action if I didn't pay.

So please explain to me again how great the 1% are?

[Scottie]

That's looking at the 1% of the 1%er's, so to speak. The vast majority of rich whales are not the multibillionaires that get away with shit like that, because they can afford to. And it's not illegal for them to do so. If it was, you can be damn sure the government would come down hard on it. It's because the government leaves open holes in the laws for the richest of the rich to get away with it if they feel it's worth their time and money. Why? Who knows. It's not illegal, and it's in the best interests of their shareholders - why wouldn't they seek to maximise their profits? I doubt there is any person out there in any tax bracket who would willingly pay more tax than absolutely necessary.

Corps will pay the minimum wage they can get away with because people will work for that. If the employee doesn't feel that their time is being valued highly enough, they are free to seek employment elsewhere. Meanwhile someone else will happily take that position, and continue to produce goods at a lower price for that corp because they do not have to be paid as much - thus dropping (in theory, at least) the end price that the consumer has to pay for the good. If the consumer, someone like you or I, feels that they do not agree with a business' practices, they can stop purchasing goods from that company and then try to inform others as to why they're boycotting it. There are other, smaller companies that pride themselves on producing shit ethically and at decent rates for their workers. Usually more expensive because they have to pay their workers more, but it sends a message.

[Chillz]

Link to source?

[Scottie]

http://allhiphop.com/2014/05/13/dr-dres ... 4-to-make/

[Cupe]

Fuck OP should have source. My bad