(AllHipHop News) 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.