Beats by Dre is Back, but Don't Call it a Comeback

In the past year, Beats has launched multiple new products like the Solo 4 headphones and Solo Buds, dropped a collab with Stüssy while teasing another with fragment design, and introduced its Samuel Ross-designed Studio Pro flagship headphones. Beats has further tapped into fashion through collaborations with Skepta, WINDOWSEN and Mowalola, as well as popular culture with its latest headphones in partnership with Minecraft. Beats is back, but don’t call it a comeback.

Recently, the brand launched a brand new version of its iconic portable speaker, the Beats Pill, completely overhauling the product both inside and out and releasing it alongside a hilarious campaign film starring LeBron James and Lil Wayne. While the new Pill feels familiar – a mark of good design – with its tubular shape and combination of metal and rubber, it’s much lighter than its predecessor even while boasting twice the battery life. It features a pool-and-beach-ready IP67 rating that makes it both water- and dust-resistant and is much louder than before, with a new internal redesign that sees the previous dual woofer and dual tweeter construction replaced by a single tweeter and single racetrack woofer capable of displacing almost twice the air for a cleaner, more balanced sound with less distortion.

“LeBron has been a supporter of Beats from day one – if you hear him talk about Beats it’s just wonderful, he would tell you that “family, basketball, and Beats” are the things that he cares about the most.”

Beats products have come a long way. Once known for their signature bass-heavy sound (one that was once perhaps too much of a focus), a lot has changed for the brand in the decade since it was acquired by Apple. Founded by hip-hop royalty Dr. Dre and music industry titan Jimmy Iovine in 2006, Beats was sold to the Cupertino-based tech giant for $3 billion USD in 2014 – a time when wireless headphones technology was its infancy and Apple was in its pre-AirPods-era. For Iovine, though, it was the perfect partnership, one he was inspired to pursue owing to what he thought was Apple’s “unmatched ability to marry culture and technology”, something that continues to be at the brands’ baseline today.

Hypebeast caught up with the man at the helm of Beats’ recent evolution, Oliver Schusser, a 20-year Apple veteran and VP of Beats, Sports, Apple Music and Apple TV+. We discussed Beats’ latest launches, the LeBron James and Lil Wayne video, and where he sees the company going in the coming years.

Is this a special moment for the brand?

We’ve always had a moment. I mean, Beats will be 20 years old in two years. We’re 18 years old with 10 years inside of Apple, and the honest truth is in the last three years we’ve launched more products than we’ve ever launched before. It’s been a constant beat with these products, from Solo 4 to Solo, and I think we’ve got great momentum. We’ve got a really strong brand. Our engineers are killing it with innovation and new features and making things smaller and louder and bigger and better. I think it’s a combination of all those things together.

What is Beats today compared to when Apple acquired it 10 years ago?

When Beats became part of Apple, it was largely an over-ear headphone brand. We had the Pill, too, but one of the things we’ve done in the last four years was to launch a great series of earphones and with Solo we’ve become an in-ear company. We are, I think, the only brand that works both on iOS and on Android just as well. You can see this with our new products, they work across both ecosystems perfectly. [They are] perfectly integrated, which is really unique. And I think we’ve just stepped up the marketing for the brand, working at the intersection of music and fashion and sports, working with really cool athletes and artists and celebrities. It’s been fun.

Are you rebels within the Apple ecosystem?

We don’t really look at it like that. We’re focused on making great products and our products work just as great on both platforms. We’ve always had great taste when it comes to colors. We’ve always been a fun, youthful brand with a strong base in hip-hop and R&B, but we’re also super popular in the fitness space with extreme athletes and people who are serious about sport. That’s always been sort of our DNA, that hasn’t really changed.

Apple has its own AirPods line of headphones. Is there a difference between the Beats and the Apple consumer?

We’re only really focused on Beats. We don’t really compare ourselves to AirPods or any other brand. And, if you look at the product range now, I’d like to think it’s actually everyone. We’re more youthful in the sense of some of the vibrant colors we have, and [we have] a very identifiable Beats sound that is typically a stronger, deeper bass. We like to be loud. We like to support the underdogs – and we’d see ourselves as an underdog, as well. We don’t compare ourselves to any of the other brands in the market to be honest.

Can you tell us a bit more about the new brand campaign?

Well, as I said, we’ve always been at the crossroads between music and sports and [the new campaign] is like the perfect ad for that. We’ve got LeBron who has been a supporter of Beats from day one – if you hear him talk about Beats it’s just wonderful, he would tell you that “family, basketball, and Beats” are the things that he cares about the most. And then Lil Wayne, one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time. Who would have known that the two of them are amazing actors?! And [they are both] really, really fun. So it’s just been fantastic and it’s really that intersection between the two [sports and music] that I think speaks for the brand.

You’ve been at Apple for 20 years and at the helm of Beats for four. What are some of your highlights in your time with Beats so far?

A couple of years ago we made the decision to completely upgrade our product portfolio. The honest truth is that some of our products had gotten a little old and you could argue the brand had sort of lost its way a little bit. We updated our sales approach, but the best part of the work is always the product and we decided to invest in in-ear products which, at the time and still today, is what a lot of customers want. We consider ourselves a premium brand and we try to make high quality products [both] from an engineering and from a parts and manufacturing point of view. [Beats products are made to] the same standards like everything else at Apple, even though we’re a sub-brand, and working on the products work with our world-class engineers and our operations teams has been the greatest joy. We also did a brand campaign about three and a half years ago called ‘You Love Me’ – I don’t know if you’ve seen it? – but repositioning the brand back to its roots has been really, really fun and just beautiful.

What can people look forward to from Beats in the future?

High quality products. The brand is really beloved, it’s very identifiable, so we will continue to develop high quality products, maybe one day non-audio products, but anyway, we’ll see.

Sounds interesting. Non-audio Beats products?

Who knows? I mean, I’d be open for anything, but for now we’ve just relaunched the Beats Pill which has has been in our portfolio for a long time. I think it’s a great example of how we took a product that we’ve had for a long time completely re-engineered it. Everything inside and outside is brand new. It’s lighter, it’s louder, it still feels so familiar, but if you put it next to the first Pill they actually look remarkably different. The shape and everything. It’s so iconic that it reminds you of what the Pill was was and the same is true for Studio and Solo. We’re trying to build on top of iconic designs.

What was the first song you played on the new beats for when you got your first?

it was actually Rumble by Skillex and Fred Again. Amazing.

You mentioned hip-hop. The genesis of the brand is Dre and Jimmy. What is Beats’ role is within culture? And how important is it to be authentically involved in culture?

It’s our roots. It’s where we come from. That’s the place where you want to be. We care very much about kids on a basketball court having access to great music. About great technology, in-ear or on speakers. That’s really what the brand stands for. I think we have the right people, the right, tastemakers, the right talent sort of in within Apple to support on both sides of the business, the right marketing people.

Since you mentioned kids on a basketball court and you’ve had a very storied, successful career. What’s a piece of advice you received that has always stuck with you?

It’s all about the product. If you have a great product, then people will talk about it will give you good reviews. Word of mouth and recommendations, you’re gonna have a great time. But if you have a shitty product, no PR and no marketing can sell a bad product. Especially in today’s world where people give reviews on every platform. So I think I think it starts with making great product, then the marketing just needs to make sure that people understand what the core features of the product are. If you have good ideas that’s better, but, to me, it starts with the product. The other thing I always tell people is “you’ve got to have fun.” One of the things that’s really unique about the Beats team, compared to I think many other people in the market, is that we’re having a ton of fun working on the brand and these products. Have you seen the clips with the little Pill characters? Wow, these guys are really having fun! I always believe in people. When people at work have fun, it shows in the outcome.