With musicians looking to squeeze more money from their careers as profit from record sales decline, Dr Dre’s been enjoying extra cash for a while thanks to his partnership with sonic engineers Monster with his Beats by Dre headphones that he launched back in 2008.
The headphones have enjoyed great product placement in other musicians music videos including Lady Gaga, David Guetta, Will.i.am and of course Eminem, but it seems his protegé, 50 Cent, is fed up of seeing the good doctor raking in the cash from what seems a pretty simple product. Fiddy’s only gone and done it himself and partnered with high-end audio professionals Sleek to produce the SYNC by 50 headphones – see how the two compare below, with 50 Cent’s headphones at the top left, Dr Dre’s Beats at the bottom right:
50′s unique selling point is that his headphones are wireless, albeit on its own radio frequency, meaning that you need to plug-in a dongle into your iPod/iPhone or other music-playing device, which is great if that device doesn’t have any wireless capabilities built-in. Given that Bluetooth headphones haven’t taken off and have suffered from quality issues, 50 might be onto something.
Dr Dre’s not taking it lying down though, and is already pushing through a wireless version of his Beats by Dre headphones, pictured below going through FCC approval:
It’s anticipated that the wireless Beats by Dre headphones will connect over Bluetooth, which will probably appeal to users of smart phones and advanced MP3 players that already have Bluetooth built-in and don’t want to deal with a dongle. Not a surprising move given that mobile-maker HTC recently purchased a majority stake in Beats manufacturer Monster.
Expect both these headphones to be out at least in the States in time for this Christmas.
