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Iovine smacks down NFL saying ban gives Beats free publicity, Dre wanted to get into shoes before headphones

Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine responded to a recent fine levied by the NFL against 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for wearing Beats headphones during a post-game interview. Iovine said that he was glad players considered Beats ‘cool’ and that the company had gotten millions of dollars worth of publicity out of the media coverage surrounding the ban and subsequent fine.

Iovine also recounted how the Beats brand got started when he ran into Dr. Dre on the beach one day. Dre told Iovine that his lawyer had suggested that he start a line of sneakers. Iovine told Dre that no one would buy his shoes, and told him that instead he should get into speakers and headphones, leveraging his fame as a music producer to back the quality.

Iovine also praised Apple’s decision to buy Beats as a “smart move” and compared it to hiring Angela Ahrendts to run the company’s retail arm.

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Comments

  1. samuelsnay - 9 years ago

    Beats should publicly and loudly state that they’ll pay the fines for any NFL player who wants to wear their headphones to press conferences.

    • Jerrod IBanks Banks - 9 years ago

      Nah, that’s just getting the NFL more money for nothing. In a sense they will be paying for the advertising at that point, might as well invest that into awesome commercial spots and ads.Thought it’s only pennies in the bank to beats, no sense in allowing the NFL to make bank off an rule against them. At least this is the way I see it ya know.

    • drhalftone - 9 years ago

      Good idea. What should Beats do when the NFL raises the fine to $1,000,000,000,000.00? Here is my prediction. The NFL will increase the fine by a factor of 10 every time an NFL players wears non-Bose headphones on camera. What did you think of the first Olympics Dreamteam when Micheal Jordan wore a US flag over the Adidas logo on his US jersey when Jordan’s sponsor, Nike, objected to him wearing any shoe logo other than Nike?

  2. thshmbl - 9 years ago

    Totally

  3. It’s funny cause I had exactly the same thoughts when this was all happened originally! If they want another brand of headphones to be the only brand, they should handout free headsets as a form of publicity at the NFL as I’m sure this is what Beats is doing.
    It is cheaper to give away product than it is to do an advertising campaign.

    • drhalftone - 9 years ago

      For today, it makes a lot of noise for Beats. But in six months and a fine of $10,000,000.00, will it continue to provide Beats publicity worth the fine? The NFL is in it for the long term. How can they expect Nike to pay a premium for NFL sponsorship if players wear Under Armor logos in all their interviews.

  4. Tommy Woerner - 9 years ago

    Iovine also praised Apple’s decision to buy Beats as a “smart move”

    Why on earth would he not praise a buyout and subsequent equity acquisition.

  5. Chris Jones (@lcj005) - 9 years ago

    So Apple got a lot of publicity after the whole MS Surface affair with commentators saying the players & coaches were using “iPads” instead of “Surface Tablets” and now this Beats vs Bose headset thing. Looks and sounds like the NFL chose the wrong partners…