We enjoyed Dr Dre’s drunken video on Friday in which he appeared to confirm the Apple/Beats rumours: “The first billionaire in hip-hop, right here from the motherf***ing west coast,” as he put it. Apple, of course, has stuck to its policy of not commenting on rumours and motherf***ing speculation. But plenty of industry experts are contributing the latter. Some of the more useful pieces to read include: Jon Maples’ reminder of how the hardware and service elements of Beats may interlock to make the $3.2bn price tag a good deal: “With Beats Electronics’ hardware business already creating significant profits, Apple’s purchase price could be covered within a couple years. So in essence the company is getting into streaming music for a song.” Mark Mulligan looks at the angle of Apple’s own hardware: “If Apple does get Beats Music, it would have an unprecedented opportunity to make bundled subscriptions work… with the cost largely hidden in the premium price point associated with the bundle, could help consumers get over the hump of committing to monthly spending.” And Bob Lefsetz, whose April Fool story this year foreshadowed the deal, offers some context to all the ‘Apple v Spotify’ talk. “Apple still won’t own music streaming,” he wrote. “Never forget the market leader in streaming is YouTube.”
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…