Apple officially confirms Beats Audio Purchase - US$3.2 Billion as Apple gears up for Subscription Streaming and improved Headphones

“It's about music. Music is something that is really important to culture. It's important to everyone in the world. Everyone loves music. Apple has been involved in music since Day 1. ... This is about us continuing to invest in music. At the end of the day, it's not about what Apple is doing today, or what Beats is doing today. It's about what we can do together”

Apple SVP of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, commenting at the Code Conference hosted by Recode on Wednesday May 28^th 2014

It’s now official news!

Apple has actually purchase Beats Electronics as I’d first reported in my blog article entitled “Apple to buy Beats Electronics for US$3.2 Billion - Interaxion Mind Reading Device as when Mind Audio Hits, You Feel No Pain”.

Only this time, I’ve got official confirmation of the deal worth some US$3.2 Billion on Wednesday May 28^th 2014 as reported in “APPLE MAKES BEATS BUY OFFICIAL, TO THE TUNE OF $3 BILLION”, published May 28, 2014 By Ryan Waniata, DigitalTrends and “Apple finally confirms it's buying Beats for $3B”, published May 28, 2014 1:37 PM PDT by Shara Tibken, CNET News

With the purchase of Beats Electronics, Apple is hoping to stem the steady decline in Downloads as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Apple iOS 8 may free Apple iTunes Radio on Google Play Store” by quickly jumping into the Subscription Streaming Music Business.

According to the NPD Group, 60% of the $1 billion premium headphones market is controlled by Beats Electronics. With this acquisition, it now brings three (3) new things to Apple:

1.      Beats Electronics management team of co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre

2.      US$449 high-end Beats by Dr. Dre Headphones, US$99 Beats by Dr. Dre. Earbuds and other products

3.      Bears Audio, their hand-picked personally curated Subscription music service

Beats Audio, despite having a mere 200,000 strong audience, has a 70% conversion rate among music lovers, who switch from free to paid soon after sampling a few songs. This must have attracted Apple more than anything, as it suggests that this is a strong foundation to build upon as stated in “Apple iTunes head Cue and Beat's Iovine: Apples going to put Beats on Steroids”, published May 28, 2014 8:46 PM PDT by Shara Tibken   and Connie Guglielmo, CNET News.

Interesting times are ahead for Apple as they switch from Music Downloading to Music Streaming. Hopefully, they’ll reinvent the way in which we consume music as well by virtue of improved headphone hardware as I’ve predicted in my blog article entitled “Apple to buy Beats Electronics for US$3.2 Billion - Interaxion Mind Reading Device as when Mind Audio Hits, You Feel No Pain”.