Daily News Alerts
Get our daily news stories right in your email inbox. Subscribe below.

 
Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine Team Up With Hewlett-Packard To Improve Digital Music
By Tim Boswell ♦ Published 08/14/2009

2009-08-14 - Dr. Dre and Jimmy IovineDr. Dre and Interscope head Jimmy Iovine recently revealed that they have partnered with computer maker Hewlett-Packard in hopes of vastly improving the sound quality of digital music.

According to CNET.com, the plan is to roll out a line of premium-priced laptops, headsets, and software featuring the "Beats by Dr. Dre" brand this fall.

However, it's been made clear, it's not an attempt to fix the business woes the record industry has been suffering from in recent years.

In an interview with CNET last week, Iovine confirmed that he and Dre are devising a plan to reconstruct the "digital music ecosystem" from the sound file to the computer and culminating with high-end headsets. But, declined to discuss the parties involved.

"We have to fix the entire chain," Iovine said. "Our position is to go to all the sources and try to improve sound and educate people ... We can't put anything weak in the line. Whoever puts out things that sound bad shouldn't be as cool as something that sounds great."

While Iovine downplayed inklings that the project would rival Apple, experts said it has the makings of an attempt to lure away some of the iTunes market share in the music biz.

An analyst told CNET that there's room for competitors to take on Apple, if they were to offer better sound quality. But, added that there might be struggles to move beyond the niche digital market.

"There is always an opening," Richard Shim told the site. "The question is how do you take a doggy door and turn it into a garage door? How do you take something that has a small audience (the market for high quality sound) and push it out to the mainstream."

Iovine explained that he and Dre just want better sound, and aren't hell-bent on saving music from their sagging sales.

"I just want our product to sound better," Iovine said. "The record business committed many, many mistakes in the last 10 years, and I'm right in there. One of them was letting its product get degraded. It's one thing to let it get stolen, it's another to allow it to be degraded because then you really don't have a chance...video games and TV quality are getting better and the quality of our work is getting lower. If that happens, then music will become disposable. That's something we can fix."

At press time, it's unclear when these improvements would begin to surface in the marketplace.

Categories: Music        Tags: , ,
  • Ritual

    This makes total sense, music from itunes just doesnt sound equal to music played from a c.d that you'd buy. I'm assuming Dre has been hearing how his beats sound when downloaded from itunes and not liking what he hears. It's pretty obvious that the beats suffer

  • Shewolvreen

    I was wondering when someone would come to their senses regarding this. Great idea.

  • D

    about damn time some 1 thought of this.

    when U purchase from itunes + back it up on cd it sounds like a bad cassette!!!

    even the itunes plus could be better.

    Not sure HP were wise announcing this so soon, gives Apple + the rest a big heads up

  • Slab

    this is money in the bank right here

  • bLAK-zAIRE

    This is more than just making digital music sound better. They are developing a way that people can't just download their music without paying for it. Digital music is supposed to sound like shit to keep people from bootlegging it but no one took the lead on actually making the technology work for them and that's what Dre is doing. The movie industry has been doing this for years already the music industry needs to catch up.

Win The Treasury Watch From Ecko Watches' Timepieces Collectionr
Ecko Watches hooked is up with a few watches, so we're hooking you up...
Home | About Us | Advertise With Us | Contact Us | Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy

© BallerStatus.com 2010 ‘Til Infinitiy. Hated On Since 2002. All Rights Reserved.