第五十集：苹果 - Beats

于是他们意识到，体育领域对他们来说将会是巨大的机会。

So they fall into they realized that like sports is gonna be massive for them.

说实话，居然没人想过用音乐人来推广耳机和音箱，这简直太不可思议了。

I mean, you know, headphones, totally crazy that nobody had thought about marketing headphones and speakers with like musicians before.

那运动员呢？

But but what about athletes?

对吧？

Right?

其实这还得追溯到德雷和球鞋的合作，咱们就照那个路子来推广。

Like, you know, it really is it goes back to Dre and the shoe deal, you know, like let's market it the same way.

几年后，他们推出了特别棒的‘听你所想’广告，请了理查德·谢尔曼、科林·卡佩尼克和凯文·加内特，简直太出色了。

So this leads to a couple years later, the awesome hear what you want commercials that they do, you know, with Richard Sherman and Colin Kaepernick and Kevin Garnett, just so good.

这对营销来说特别关键，尤其是对那些不太关注音乐或明星、但热爱体育的人，品牌一下子就变成了生活方式的象征。

And, you know, really a big part of the marketing, especially for people that maybe might not be as much into music or artists particularly, but like are into sports, like, it really becomes a lifestyle brand.

接下来我们跳过几年，回头再说。

And then we're skipping ahead a couple years, we'll come back.

但到了2014年，你知道，Beats在NFL里火得不行，那些广告到处都是。

But in 2014, you know, the show Beats are so popular in the NFL and all these commercials are hitting.

NFL跟Bose签了协议，结果直接把Beats给禁了。

The NFL does a deal with Bose headphones and, like and they ban Beats.

吉米当时还接受了采访，就在事情发生的过程中，舆论炸了，人人都在讨论这事。

And Jimmy's like they actually Jimmy gives an interview about this half like, as it's happening and there's so much publicity and they're like, everybody's talking about it.

所有运动员都在议论这件事。

All the athletes are talking about it.

吉米说，这简直是给我们送来的最好礼物。

Jimmy's like, this is the best thing that ever happened to us.

我根本不可能策划得比这更完美了。

Like, I literally could not have planned this any better.

这就像在说，那些有钱人想进来砸钱，只为满足大家的需求——而大家想要的，就是Beats。

It's like the the narrative of like, these rich guys wanna come in and pay money so that people can have what they want and what they want is Beats.

这就跟当年Facebook想抄Snapchat的Poke功能一个道理。

It's like, you know, it's like the parallels to when, when Facebook tried to copy Snapchat with Poke.

你想想，退一步看，这简直是Snapchat有史以来最好的事。

You know, and it's like, you take a step back and you're like, this is the best thing that ever happened to Snapchat.

各位听众。

Alright, listeners.

现在正好跟大家介绍一下我们节目的老朋友Vanta。

Now is a great time to tell you about a longtime friend of the show, Vanta.

人工智能彻底改变了安全领域的格局。

AI has scrambled the whole security picture.

以前呢，你每年做一次审计，交一份静态的PDF报告，大家点个头，这事就算完了。

It used to be that you proved that you were secure once a year on audit or static PDF, then everyone would nod and you're done.

但在人工智能主导的时代，这种做法已经行不通了。

But in an AI first world, that doesn't hold up anymore.

没错。

Yep.

现在，你的风险面每周都在变。

Your risk surface changes every week now.

供应商启用了一个AI功能，或者有人悄悄上线了新模型，根本没通知IT部门，你的安全态势就已经和上周不一样了，更别提上一次审计的时候了。

A vendor turns on an AI feature or someone writes in a new model without telling IT, and your posture is different than it was last week, let alone at your last audit.

Vanta自己的研究发现，大约70%的公司都在运行这种所谓的‘影子AI’，而且完全没经过任何安全审查。

Vanta's own research found that around 70% of companies have this, quote, unquote, shadow AI running with no security review at all.

没错。

Right.

这时候，Vanta就派上用场了。

And that's where Vanta comes in.

他们是领先的智能信任平台，也就是说，他们打造了真正填补这一空白的工具。

They're the leading agentic trust platform, meaning they've built the thing that closes the gap.

而他们填补这个缺口的方式，就是Vanta代理。

And the way that they close that gap is Vanta agent.

你可以把它想象成一个GRC工程师。

Think of it as a GRC engineer.

GRC就是治理、风险与合规，只不过这是软件，而且从不休息。

That's governance, risk, and compliance, except that it's software, and it doesn't sleep.

它能自动发现这些问题，起草解决方案，把你们花在供应商评估上的时间砍掉一半。

It finds the issues, drafts the fixes, and cuts the time that you'd spend on vendor assessments in half.

一半。

In half,

这正是如今超过一万六千家公司选择Vanta的原因。

which is exactly why more than 16,000 companies today run on Vanta.

像Ramp、Cursor和Snowflake这样的公司，都能持续保持审计合规，及时发现供应商、AI工具以及整个环境中在两次审计之间冒出来的风险。

Companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Snowflake all stay audit ready and catch the risks that crop up between audits across every vendor, every AI tool, the whole environment.

这才是真正的价值所在。

And that's the real value.

如今，信任必须是持续不断的，这也是为什么Vanta能自动完成你的安全、合规以及建立和证明信任所需的所有工作。

Trust has to be continuous now, which is why Vanta automates your security, your compliance, and the work to earn and prove trust.

我们这边对Vanta非常推崇，多年来，已有数百名Acquired的听众在自己公司里成了Vanta的客户。

We're huge fans of Vanta over here, and literally hundreds of Acquired listeners have become Vanta customers at their companies over the years.

所以你现在可以通过vanta.com/acquired领取1000美元的优惠。

So you can get a thousand dollars off Vanta at vanta.com/acquired.

访问 vanta.com/acquired 可以优惠一千美元，记得告诉他们是本和戴维介绍的。

That's vanta.com/acquired for a thousand dollars off and just tell them that Ben and David sent you.

我们再回过头来讲讲这家公司的发展故事。

So back to the company story.

他们在2008年推出了第一个产品。

So they they launched the first product in 2008.

产品非常成功。

It's really successful.

公司一直在增长，但那时候他们还和Monster保持着合作关系。

They're growing, but they're still you know, they've got this partnership with Monster.

Beats本身还是一家很小的公司。

Beats itself is super small company.

他们主要负责品牌、设计和参考方案。

They're just you know, they're the brand and they're the design and reference designs.

后来他们决定要扩大规模，于是和HTC达成了合作。

But they decide, know, they wanna grow, so they they partner with, with HTC.

我们在其他几期节目里，比如安卓那期，也提到过这个事。

And we've referenced this in other episodes on the Android episode and others.

但到底是哪一期呢？

But what was the one we did?

我觉得是HTC和谷歌那期。

I think it was the, the HTC Google.

对。

Yeah.

HTC和谷歌。

HTC Google.

没错。

Right.

就是HTC本身。

HTC itself.

2010年8月，HTC收购了Beats的多数股权，以3.09亿美元买下了50.1%的股份。

HTC ends up acquiring a majority stake in Beats in August 2010 and, they pay $309,000,000 for a 50.1% stake.

所以这家公司估值超过了六亿美元。

So the company's valued at over 600,000,000.

吉米在谈论这件事，主要是他在说，因为德雷很少开口。

As Jimmy talks about it, it's mostly Jimmy because Dre doesn't talk much.

这本来就是他的领域。

Like, this is his thing.

德雷呢，他就在实验室里埋头做事。

Like, Dre, he did he's just in the lab.

他根本不爱跟人说话，更别提面对媒体了。

Like, he hates talking to hates talking to anyone, let alone the press.

但吉米话特别多。

But Jimmy talks a lot.

于是吉米就说，你知道吗，我早就知道音乐的未来会在智能手机上。

So Jimmy talked about it and he's like, well, you know, I knew the future of music was gonna be, you know, on smartphones.

所以我想到，我们得跟一家智能手机厂商合作，把我们的耳机和核心技术放进这些手机里。

And so I thought, like, we needed to, you know, we needed to tie up with a smartphone manufacturer to get, you know, our headphones and our technology into, into these phones.

所以那时候出过 Beats by Dre 联名的 HTC 安卓手机，简直笑死人。

So this is where you have like Beats by Dre HTC Android phones that are coming out for a while, which are hilarious.

我们真该找个像博物馆那样的地方，把这些产品收藏起来。

We totally should like we should find somewhere that's like an acquired like museum and put some of these products in there.

我们可以搞个‘下一站’展览。

We could get a next, a Next Station.

搞一台 HTC Beats 手机放进去。

We get a HTC Beats phone.

是啊。

Oh, yeah.

我们虽然没专门做一期讲这个，但提过那个 HP iPod。

They, we didn't do an episode on it, but we referenced that HP iPod.

对啊。

Oh, yeah.

没错。

Oh, totally.

对了，咱们该弄个YouTube版的iPod。

Oh, and we should get the YouTube iPod.

那当然。

Of course.

这主意太棒了。

Oh, this is great.

也许我们终于能把我iPhone上被偷偷加进去的那些YouTube音乐删掉了。

Maybe we can finally get all that YouTube music off my iPhone that was put on it without my permission.

是啊。

Oh, yeah.

没错。

That's right.

我差点把这事儿忘了。

I forgot about that.

天哪。

Oh, man.

那可真是个灾难。

That was a disaster.

对。

Yeah.

这其实是个很棒的主意。

That's actually a great idea.

咱们该搞个收藏型博物馆。

We should do an acquired museum.

如果有谁想在哪儿赞助一个收藏型博物馆的话。

If anyone wants to sponsor an acquired museum somewhere.

大卫，你知道吗？

David, you know what?

我希望有一天这档节目能发展到真能办个实体博物馆的地步。

I hope one day this show gets to the level where we have an actual physical museum.

现在嘛，也许就在我们某个人的家里先弄一个。

For now, maybe maybe in one of our houses.

你

You

有个梦想。

got a dream.

好吧。

Okay.

于是他们和HCC达成了协议，Beats公司继续发展壮大。

So they do the deal with, HCC, and the company Beats continues to grow.

它彻底席卷了流行文化。

It totally overtakes pop culture.

我的意思是，到处都有孩子在戴。

I mean, kids everywhere are wearing them.

大人也在戴。

Non kids are wearing them.

它一直在不断扩张。

They're growing and growing.

2012年，吉米和德雷突然意识到，这背后有个巨大的机会。

2012, Jimmy and Dre kinda realized like, okay, there's a huge opportunity here.

如果我们真想把这家公司做大，就必须掌握主动权，自己说了算。

And if we're really gonna make this a big company, we gotta own we gotta control our own destiny.

得跟Monster分手，把所有东西都自己搞起来。

We gotta kick Monster out and, you know, and build everything in house.

别忘了，吉米跟苹果那边的人全都熟得很。

And again, remember Jimmy, you know, knows everybody at Apple.

他特别受苹果启发，就是那种硬件、品牌和软件一体化的思路。

He's super inspired by them, and this idea of, know, like hardware and brand and software altogether.

于是，他们决定不再跟Monster续约。

So they don't renew the partnership with Monster.

他们开始自己动手做硬件。

They move to producing the hardware themselves.

Monster这件事，恰恰说明了他们在耳机行业面对的竞争有多激烈。

Monster, this is just such an example of like the competition these guys were facing in the in the headphone industry.

Monster一想，嘿，这事儿我们也能干。

Monster decides like, oh, we can do this too.

我们也要推出主打生活方式的耳机，还跟艺人合作。

We're gonna come out with like lifestyle branded headphones and work with artists.

于是他们推出了地球、风与火品牌的耳机。

So they release Earth, Wind, and Fire branded headphones.

我超爱地球、风与火这个乐队。

I love Earth, Wind, and Fire.

他们是六七十年代特别棒的组合。

Great group from the sixties and seventies.

但你认真的吗？

But like, are you serious?

我的意思是，

Like

德雷，地球、风与火，这品牌调性完全不搭啊。

Dre, Earth, Wind, and Fire, same resonance,

你知道的，

you know,

是同一个群体的

same same group of

没错，完全没错。

people Totally.

是啊。

Oh, yeah.

而且要心怀敬意。

And have reverence.

Earth, Wind, and Fire的耳机迟早会取代Beats by Dre，还有理查德·谢尔曼、科林·卡佩尼克和勒布朗·詹姆斯那些联名款。

Earth, Wind, and Fire headphones are totally gonna dethrone, you know, Beats by Dre and Richard Sherman and Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James.

他们肯定会说：你认真的吗？

They're like, yo, are you kidding me?

说实在的，Monster还推出了迈尔斯·戴维斯联名耳机，这事儿吧，迈尔斯·戴维斯，你也懂的。

To be fair to Monster, they also come out with Miles Davis branded headphones, which, you know, again, like, Miles Davis.

不错。

Great.

不过，这个市场到底有多大？跟勒布朗·詹姆斯的粉丝群体比起来呢？

But, like, how big is that market versus, you know, LeBron James fans?

对。

Yeah.

我是说，他们错失的那个市场，并不是那种‘我超爱Beats’的群体。

I mean, the the mark that they miss there is not that, like, I love Doctor.

所以我会听 Beats 的歌。

Dre so I listen to Beats.

主要是 Dre 这个人很酷，而且他是 Beats 品牌的幕后推手。

It's that Dre is cool and there's and he's behind Beats and Beats of the brand.

并不是说我想去代表 Dre 本人。

Not that like, I wanna represent Doctor.

每次听到都会觉得特别对味。

Dre every time I Totally.

让Beats随处可见。

Have Beats around.

完全没错。

Totally.

确实如此。

Totally.

所以他们实际上搞了个大动作。

So then they actually this is monster.

几年后，在苹果收购Beats之后，他们提起了诉讼。

They end up suing after the Apple acquisition a couple years later.

他们起诉了Beats和苹果。

They end up suing Beats and Apple.

他们说：你们这是耍花招。

They're like, oh, you deal.

把我们该得的全给骗走了。

Cheat us out of all this.

苹果那边说，这招真是够狠的。

And Apple's like, this is such a baller move.

苹果说，行吧，随你。

Apple's like, okay, fine.

于是他们取消了 Monster 作为苹果认证配件的资格。

So they revoke Monster's membership in the like certified Apple accessories.

你既然要玩真的，那我们也奉陪到底。

Like, you wanna play hardball, we'll play hardball.

哦，MFI 是认证体系。

Oh, the the MFI is certified.

对。

Yeah.

MFI 是认证的，而 Monster 继续打官司。

MFI is certified and Monster pursues the case.

最后法院驳回了这个案子，根本就是毫无根据。

A court eventually throws it out like this is totally baseless case.

我敢打赌，苹果公司里肯定有一大群人根本看不起Monster这家公司。

There are, I'm sure, a large group of people in Apple that have like zero respect for what Monster does as a company anyway.

我觉得，能有机会狠狠回击他们一下，一定挺痛快的。

And I think it it probably felt good just to like be able to to to stick it to him there.

在我眼里，Monster最让人反感的就是满嘴跑火车，吹嘘什么线材质量多好，可实际上那些接口和便宜五分之一价格的货根本没区别，却卖你一百五十美元一根HDMI线。

Because I mean, for in in in my mind, the thing that I'll always know Monster for is is, like, complete BS lying to you marketing about the quality of connectors that are no better than the connectors that you could get for something that is a fifth the price and then charging you $150 for an HDMI cable.

我简直能想象，能直接告诉这家公司‘你爱哪儿待哪儿去吧’，那种感觉一定很爽。

I just have to imagine that having recourse to tell that company to, you know, stick it somewhere is is a nice feeling.

我

I

我觉得当年Best Buy和Monster之间肯定有某种勾结，虽然我不确定这些有没有在法庭上曝光过，但九十年代那会儿，他们肯定串通一气干了不少事。

feel like there was some I don't know if this has come out in court cases or otherwise but there must have been some like massive collusion between Best Buy and Monster throughout like all of the nineties about all this stuff.

这可是数字信号啊。

Like, it's digital.

对吧？

Right?

像这种设备的质量，说到底就是一和零。

Like the quality of the kit, it's ones and zeros.

这根本不是

It's It's not

镀金的。

gold plated.

你不懂。

You don't understand.

好吧。

Okay.

行吧。

Alright.

咱们别谈Monster了。

Let's get out of Monster Land.

关于掌握自己命运的那部分，吉米和杰伊也意识到，跟HTC绑定并不是出路。

The other part about kind of controlling their own destiny, you know Jimmy and Jay also realized that like tying up with HTC is not the future here.

首先，他们让HTC把持有的股份一半卖回来。

First they get HTC to sell back half of their stakes.

他们当时持有50.1%的股份。

They own 50.1%.

2012年，他们把25%的股份卖回给公司。

They sell back 25% to the company in 2012.

到了2013年，大型私募股权基金卡莱尔集团投资了五亿美元给Beats，并用其中一部分资金买下了HTC剩下的全部股份。

And then in in 2013, the Carlyle Group, the big private equity fund, they actually invest 500,000,000 in Beats and use part of that proceeds to buy back all the rest of HTC.

到2013年，HTC就完全从股东名单里消失了。

So HTC is completely gone by 2013 from the cap table.

吉米和德雷在从HTC买下那50.1%股份的时候，有没有套现过？

Did Jimmy and Dre get any liquidity from that that initial 50.1% purchase from HTC?

你知道吗？

Do you know?

我不清楚。

I don't know.

我的意思是，我猜是有的，但我也不确定。

I mean, I suspect so, but I don't I don't know.

不过据我所知，当时情况大概是这样——我可能记错了，但公司那时候就五个人左右。

But apparently, I think when that happened, I I could be wrong here, but I think the company was like five people.

说白了，就只有吉米和德雷两个人。

Like, I mean, it was literally just like Jimmy and Dre.

哦，因为所有生产还是外包的？

Oh, because all the manufacturing was still contract?

对。

Yeah.

全部都是Monster公司代工的。

It was all done by Monster.

所以Beats那时候其实就负责设计、调音，这些主要都是德雷在搞，再加上市场营销。

So it was just like, you know, the Beats was just doing, like, the design, the sound tuning, and that that that was done by, you know, mostly Dre and and then the marketing.

所以想想真挺不可思议的，HTC居然愿意花三亿美元买下公司一半股份，而那时候公司才五个人。

So it's kinda crazy that, like, HTC, you know, that you could build such value and that HTC paid, you know, 300,000,000 for half the company with, like, five people.

是的。

Yeah.

这简直就是人才收购啊。

Talk about a talent acquisition.

对。

Yeah.

真的。

Seriously.

这个我们待会儿再细说。

Well, we'll get into that in a minute.

其实，这倒是个挺有意思的话题。

Actually, that would be kind of a fun yeah.

可能不会另做一期，但确实挺有意思。

Probably not another episode, but it's interesting.

我们在分析苹果这次收购的类型时，也该顺带分析一下HTC的。

We we should when we're classifying what type of acquisition it was for Apple, we should also do that for HTC.

是的。

Yeah.

完全没错。

Totally.

说得对，好观点。

Good, good point.

咱们得记着做这件事。

Let's remember to do that.

在这整个过程中，他们开始自己生产产品。

As part of all this, they start producing the products themselves.

他们不再依赖Monster了。

They're done with Monster.

他们自主研发的首批Beats产品是Beats Executive耳机，还有Beats Pill无线音箱——这款产品大获成功，现在已经迭代到好几代了。

The first in house Beats products that come out are the Beats executive headphones, first and the Beats Pill, wireless speaker, which was a massive success of a product, is now on multiple generations.

与此同时，他们还收购了一家小型科技公司，一家叫MOG的音乐流媒体平台，M-O-G。

The other thing they do, as they're doing all this is they acquire a small, tech company, a music streaming company called MOG, m o g.

这也是为了实现吉米当初的愿景，也就是整个音乐行业都需要做出改变。

And this is part of, you know, back to Jimmy's vision about like the whole music industry needs to change.

他一直以来都是这么想的。耳机确实很棒，也是他们创立 Beats 的起点，但他的眼光远不止于此。他打算借此搭上音乐行业的下一波浪潮。

Like he's always wanted, know, I mean headphones is great and that was, you know, how they started Beats but like his vision was like much bigger that this was gonna be his way of riding the next wave in the music industry.

当时 MOG 的处境相当艰难。

So MOG was fairly struggling.

要知道，那时候 Spotify 已经进军美国市场，并且基本上拿下了大部分市场份额。

I mean it was at this point Spotify had entered The US and kinda won the market.

不过他们确实做了一些挺有意思的事，而且手里握着不少靠谱的技术人才。

But they they did some interesting things and they had some some definitely good tech talent.

所以 Beats 收购了他们，开始着手彻底改造 MOG 的服务，把它重新包装成 Beats Music。

So Beats acquires them and starts working on totally redoing the MOG service and rebranding it as as Beats Music.

他们花了大概十八个月来打磨这个服务，与此同时，光靠耳机业务，年收入就突破了一亿美元。

So they work on that for about eighteen months and in the meantime hit over a billion dollar revenue run rate just on the headphones.

然后在 2014 年 1 月，他们正式把 MOG 重新上线，作为 Beats Music 流媒体服务推出。

And then in January 2014, they relaunched MOG as the Beats Music streaming service.

但Beats Music和其他流媒体服务不一样，它最核心的优势在于艺术家本人直接参与其中。

But the thing that Beats Music has that none of these other streaming service has have that that they think is really important is they have actual involvement by the artists themselves.

比如，有很多由艺术家亲自制作的歌单。

So there's, like, playlists that are made.

Dre、Interscope的艺人，还有Jimmy，都会亲自推荐和挑选音乐。

There's recommendation, curation by by Dre, by the Interscope artist, by Jimmy.

其他人呢，全靠算法推荐，就这么回事。

You know, everybody else is just an algorithm at this point.

Dre和Jimmy觉得，这才是音乐的未来。

And Dre and Jimmy think this is the future.

对。

Yeah.

我接下来要借用一些科技圈的说法，但这就是Jimmy Iovine的理念，它体现在各种形式里——真正尊重艺术家，让艺术家持续参与。

And this is I'll I'll I'll borrow from tech themes ahead now, but this is the the Jimmy Iovine vision that that manifests in multiple forms that's really respect the artist, keep the artist involved.

一切的核心，都是艺术家。

It's all about the artist.

事实上，在《无畏者》这部纪录片里，他提到过一句话：人们总喜欢把我的成就归功于我，却把成功归给制作人。

In fact, in the Defiant Ones documentary, there's a quote from him where he's like, people like to attribute things I did to me and success to producers.

很多时候，制作人自己也抢着领这个功劳。

Producers try and take credit for that a lot of the time.

其实，99.9%的功劳都属于艺人。

It's 99.9% the artist.

你得尊重这一点，也得真正明白这一点。

And you gotta respect that, and you gotta understand that.

正因如此，才称得上是优秀的制作人。

And that that's what makes a great producer.

再看看现在的流媒体平台，你有没有发现？

And it's interesting looking at the streaming service and saying, you know what?

艺人需要更多地参与这种有人情味的推荐和策划。

The artist need more involvement with this human curation.

所以提前说一句，Beats电台之所以特别，就在于它是人工策划的，这才是它的核心价值——而不是靠算法推荐，更不是简单地扔给你一大串歌让你自己瞎找。

So foreshadowing, the Beats one radio, you know, it's it's human curated, and that's actually a value proposition rather than algorithmically selected or, in fact, not even algorithmically selected and and just showing you, you know, huge lists of song for you to to search and browse through.

后来，随着Beats的发展，吉米坚持的一个原则就是：我们没有免费增值模式。

And then, you know, a tenet of of Jimmy's as Beats would grow later is we don't have a freemium tier.

我们会多次谈到这一点，但艺术家必须为音乐获得报酬，这一点不容商量。

And we'll we'll talk a lot about this, but, like, artists get paid for music, and that's final.

他始终如一地坚持这一立场，这也让他与行业内其他所谓的颠覆性做法截然不同。

And that's his his party line through and through and really sets him apart from a lot of the other sort of disruption that's happening in the space.

没错，确实如此。

Yep, yep.

再回到耳机这个话题，整个理念其实很简单：音乐是个人的，音乐是情感的，音乐跟技术无关。

Well and the, you know, just the whole ethos again getting back to the headphones of like music is personal, music is emotional, music is not technical.

我觉得这也是这里愿景的一部分：你的音乐服务，你不希望算法替你决定下一首歌。

And I think that's part of the vision here too is like, you know, your music service, you don't want an algorithm, you know, queuing up what's next.

你希望是德雷帮你选下一首歌。

You want like Dre queuing up what's next.

你希望是史蒂维帮你选下一首歌。

You want Stevie queuing up what's next.

也许吧。

Maybe.

说不定。

Maybe.

走着瞧吧。

We'll see.

我的‘发现每周’推荐真的很棒。

My Discover Weekly is really good.

完全同意。

Well, totally.

我不是说这一定对。

I'm not saying it's right.

我只是说，这是吉米的愿景。

I'm just saying this is Jimmy's vision.

而且对很大一部分用户来说，我觉得这个理念很有共鸣。

And certainly for big part of the market, I think that resonates.

我们马上就要说到这个故事的结尾了。

We'll get to the end of the story here now.

而这个结局，其实也特别精彩。

And and the end is kind of just as fun.

这可能是我们在《Acquired》节目中听过的最酷的收购结局，至少目前为止是这样。

It might also be the coolest end to a acquisition story that we'll ever have on Acquired certainly thus far.

2014年5月8日，记得吗？就在几个月前的1月，他们刚推出了Beats Music。

So 05/08/2014, remember in January they launched Beats Music just a couple months before.

时间一晃就到了5月。

So a few months go by May.

《金融时报》率先爆料，苹果——也就是吉米的老朋友们——正在与Beats谈判，打算以32亿美元收购它。

The Financial Times reports breaks the news that apparently Apple, Jimmy's old friends, are in negotiations to buy Beats for $3,200,000,000.

这将是苹果历史上规模最大的一笔收购，而且远远超过以往任何一次。

And this would be the largest acquisition in Apple's history by literally an order of magnitude.

之前最大的一笔收购是我们讲过的那笔，刚超过4亿美元。

So the previous largest was the next acquisition which we covered which was just over $400,000,000.

这可不像苹果一贯的作风，你知道的。

This would be, you know, Apple doesn't do things like this.

这可是大新闻。

It's huge news.

而且确实是真的。

And and it's true.

谈判还在进行中，但还没最终敲定。

Negotiations aren't going on but they're not done yet.

于是吉米给德雷打了电话，说：喂，情况出来了。

And so Jimmy calls up Dre and he's like, alright.

消息曝光了。

This came out.

你看，这可是苹果啊。

Like, we got like, this is Apple.

他们一向神神秘秘的。

They're so secretive.

他们随时可能退出。

Like, they could walk at any moment.

我们了解这些人。

Like, we know these guys.

这事没完之前，咱们得闭嘴。

Like, we gotta keep quiet until this is done.

什么都不能说。

Like, you can't say anything.

这事先别外传。

Just keep it on the DL.

千万别有任何动作。

Like, be completely like, do not do anything.

德雷说，好的。

Dre's like, yeah.

对。

Yeah.

明白了。

Gotcha.

那个周末，Dre在录音室里，和朋友待在一起，其中一位朋友是演员兼歌手泰瑞斯·吉布森。

So Dre's in the studio that weekend and he's hanging out with friends and and one of his friends is, the actor and singer Tyrese Gibson.

他们在录音室里闲聊，自然就聊到了这件事。

They're hanging in the studio and they're talking about this, of course.

你还能聊点别的吗？

Like, what are you gonna talk about?

你马上就要把他们的公司卖到三十亿美金了。

Like, you're about to sell their company for, you know, $3,200,000,000.

他们很兴奋，又到了深夜，喝了不少酒，都喝醉了。

And, they're excited and it's late at night and they, you know, they're drinking, they get drunk.

泰瑞斯掏出手机，拍下了他们庆祝的视频，还说：‘福布斯榜单刚更新了。’

And, Tyrese, you know, pulls out his phone and makes a video of all of them and they're celebrating and and and and Tyrese says like, the Forbes list just changed, just came out.

他们得更新一下信息了。

They're gonna have to like new information.

得更新福布斯榜单了。

They gotta change the Forbes list.

然后德雷就跳出来，说：‘我才是嘻哈界第一个亿万富翁！’——当时大家都在派对上，气氛正嗨。

And then Dre pops up and he's like, first billionaire in hip hop right here for and and they're like, you know, or their party, whatever.

他们各自去睡觉了。

They go to bed.

真是让人感慨啊。

So man.

这事儿够格载入史册了。

Age worthy.

那天凌晨四点。

That night, 4AM.

大清早的，吉米就给德雷打电话，直接炸了：‘你搞什么鬼？’

So early early morning, Jimmy calls up Dre and he's like, what the, you know, f?

他问：‘你到底在干嘛？’

Like, he's like, the heck are you doing?

德雷说：‘你这话是什么意思？’

And Dre's like, what do mean?

吉米说：‘就是那个视频。’

And and Jimmy's like, that video.

德雷又问：‘你到底什么意思？’

And Dre's like, what do you mean?

吉米说：‘泰瑞塞发到脸书上了。’

And Jimmy's like, Tyrese posted it to Facebook.

那时候正好是脸书视频刚推出不久。

And this was right when Facebook video was, like, launching.

所以大家根本搞不清楚脸书视频到底是干嘛的。

So people didn't really understand, like, what Facebook video was.

结果这东西自然就传到网上去了。

And so, obviously, it's on the Internet.

他们虽然没明说苹果收购了Beats，但这里明显暗示了，尤其是跟这篇报道互相印证。

Now they don't actually say that Apple is acquiring Beats, but, like, it's strongly implied here, especially corroborating this this article.

所以这笔交易还挺波折的。

So there's some rockiness to the deal.

而且。

And

说实话，我真没想到苹果居然还是签了。

Honestly, I I I can't believe Apple still went through with it.

我也没想到。

I can't either.

但他们确实签了。

But they they do.

不过据说，就像《金融时报》五月初报道的那样，事情已经快定下来了。

But, you know, supposedly like it was, you know, as the Financial Times was reporting beginning of May, it's close to done.

所有正式公告都要等到五月底才公布。

Nothing gets announced until the end of May.

所以是5月28日，再过二十天。

So May 28, twenty days later.

一旦公布，苹果收购的价钱是三十亿美元，而不是三十二亿。

And when it gets announced, Apple is doing the acquisition for $3,000,000,000, not $3,200,000,000.

没人说清楚原因，大家都在猜。

Nobody discusses why and there's speculation.

可能是Beats Music的订阅用户数比他们预期的要少一点。

Well, it could be that the Beats Music subscriber numbers were actually a little lower than, you know, they thought they will.

也可能是那个泰瑞斯的视频出了问题。

Maybe it's the Tyrese video.

咱们永远无从得知了。

We'll never know.

不过这事儿真挺搞笑的。

But, pretty hilarious.

这其实反映出好几件事。

I mean, it really shows a few things.

第一，苹果有多想推进Apple Music，以及他们觉得Beats在其中有多关键。

One, how badly Apple wanted to do what they were going to do with Apple Music and how integral they viewed Beats in doing that.

第二，吉米和他的人脉有多大的影响力。

Two, the power of Jimmy and his relationships.

苹果一贯的作风，到此为止了。

The characteristic Apple we know of, it's it's done.

你搞砸了。

Like, you you messed up.

我们不再继续推进这件事了。

We're not we're no longer moving forward with this.

你已经证明自己不是那种能真正践行苹果理念的人，我们没法信任你。

You've proved yourselves to be people that we can't, you know, can't trust to to sort of live the Apple way.

而这次收购，是苹果有史以来规模最大的一笔交易，远远超过以往任何一次。

And lead a huge part of the company going from this is the largest acquisition by an order of magnitude that Apple's ever made.

没错。

Yep.

就在宣布收购的那天，Recode大会正在举行。

So the day it gets announced is actually the Recode Conferences is going on.

Code大会正在举行。

Code Conferences is going on.

所以吉米和埃迪·Q。

And so Jimmy and Eddie Q.

埃迪·Q一直以来都是苹果负责媒体与内容的人。

So Eddie Q's always been the media and content guy at Apple.

就在交易公布当天，他原本安排在Code大会上接受卡拉·斯威舍和沃尔特·莫斯伯格的现场采访。

And, the day the deal gets announced, he's scheduled to be interviewed on stage, at the code conference by Kara Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.

然后交易真的公布了。

And, and the deal gets announced.

对吧？

Right?

于是他和吉米一起上台，走进了现场。

So so he and Jimmy come up on stage together and they get in there.

他们被卡拉·沃诺问到：‘这可是个大新闻啊。’

They're interviewed by Karen Walno like, well, this this big news.

但大家早就有预感了。

But people knew it was coming.

吉米和埃迪在这次采访中好几次都强调，这件事不是突然发生的。

But the thing that Jimmy, you know, makes the point and Eddie both several times in this interview is like this didn't happen overnight.

埃迪和吉米早就跟苹果合作了十多年了。

You know, that that Eddie had Jimmy had been working with Apple and with Eddie for over a decade.

所以说，本，像这样的关系，恐怕才是这笔交易能成的关键。

You know, going back to the launch of the iTunes Music Store and to, you know, so to your point Ben, I mean, the relationships like that's gotta be what saved the deal here.

是的。

Yeah.

天哪。

God.

真想当个墙上的苍蝇，听听埃迪给吉米打的那通电话。

To be a fly on that wall, to understand the phone call that Eddie Q makes to Jimmy.

或者给德雷打的那通电话。

Or to Dre.

是的。

Yeah.

说来也挺有意思。

Well, it's funny.

你可能会觉得

You kinda

真希望埃迪直接给德雷打了电话。

hope that Eddie just called Dre up.

我懂。

I know.

对吧？

Right?

在《无畏之师》里，他们讲了很多关于吉米是怎么得知这件事、怎么和德雷沟通的，我还没看完，但至少前半部分提得挺多的。

In in in the Defiant Ones, they do talk a lot about and I haven't finished it yet, but in the, at least in the the first part of it, they talk a lot about the how how Jimmy finds out and talking with Dre about it.

但我们完全听不到苹果那边是怎么沟通的。

We don't hear at all what the communication from Apple is like.

所以你知道，苹果的核心元素依然保留着。

And so, you know, it's very it's there there's still there's still the core of Apple in there.

真该有人写本书，深入研究一下苹果这些事背后的真正故事。

They're really like somebody someday should do like a book and like go in and research like all the like the actual stories behind all this stuff at Apple.

这些事会慢慢泄露出来，时间久了总会有些细节浮出水面，但还有太多没被讲过，真该有个专业历史学家来系统整理一下。

It start it leaks out, you know, a little bit over the years as things get older, but there's so many of these that, you know, there should be there should be a an actual historian go in and, like, do this at some point.

是的。

Yeah.

说得对。

Great point.

现在这笔收购实际上涉及两家有限责任公司。

So so at this point, the the acquisition, it's actually two LLCs.

一家是Beats Electronics LLC，另一家是Beats Music LLC。

It's Beats Electronics, LLC and Beats Music, LLC.

我刚听说这消息的时候，也不太清楚到底哪家公司更有价值、更有战略意义，苹果为什么要这么做。

And I remember when I first heard the news, it not being totally clear to me which which was more valuable, more strategic, why why Apple was actually doing this.

对我来说，当时觉得Beats Music差不多就是这样了。

I mean, to me, it seemed like Beats Music was yeah.

虽然有人用，但明显不可能成为赢家。

It had some people using it, but, like, clearly not gonna be a winner.

Spotify才更有希望成功。

Like, Spotify was gonna be a winner.

跟苹果还在做的99美分服务比起来，完全不在一个档次。

It pale in comparison to people still doing the 99¢ thing from Apple.

耳机特别火，渗透进了流行文化，表现得非常好。

Headphones were super popular and permeated pop culture and seemed to be doing really well.

所以在苹果音乐发布之前，我脑子里觉得，他们买下的是耳机公司。

So I think in my head, at the time of the acquisition before Apple Music was announced, I'd sort of chalk that up to like, okay, they bought the headphones company.

对。

Yep.

对。

Yep.

完全没错。

Totally.

说起来，一年多后，苹果推出了Apple Music，这是他们的首个流媒体服务，本质上就是重新包装并升级版的Beats Music，还包括了Beats One电台。

You know, the sort of coda here is just over a year later Apple Music launches Apple's first streaming service and it is a, you know, rebranded and revamped Beats Music including the Beats one radio station.

其中一部分内容由德雷和其他艺人主持。

That's part of it that's hosted by Dre and other artists.

这次发布之后，Apple Music就成了苹果最主要的音乐服务。

And and so that launch and that becomes, you know, Apple's primary, music offering.

但正如我们所知，本现在正戴着它们——过去几年里，苹果在耳机技术上投入得更深了。

But then also, as we know, Ben is wearing them right now, Apple has gone much deeper into headphone technology over the last couple years.

是的。

Yeah.

我觉得我们当时做了不少调研。

You know, I'd say we did a good amount of research.

但具体Beats团队在AirPods设计中参与了多少，还不太清楚。

Not totally clear how much the Beats folks were involved in the AirPods design.

我的意思是，两者之间确实有点重叠，但苹果其实对Beats的硬件影响不大。

I mean, I think there's a little bit of crossover, but but Apple actually doesn't influence the Beats hardware stuff very much.

我觉得他们主要是利用了一些规模效应，共享某些技术，互相借鉴创新。

I think it's they're they're taking advantage of some economies of scale and some, innovation where they're they're sharing things between those two.

比如，AirPods里用的W1芯片，也出现在了最新的Beats无线耳机上。

For example, the w one chip that's in the in the AirPods appears also in the the most recent Beats, wireless headphones.

但总的来说，我认为AirPods还是由苹果原有的硬件团队在推进，Beats耳机则由Beats团队继续独立发展。

But for the most part, I I believe it's Apple's, existing hardware teams continuing to work on the AirPods and Beats hardware teams continuing to push the ball forward on, on, Beats headphones.

合并过程中也进行了一些裁员。

And there was some layoffs in the consolidation.

据说在整合两家公司时，裁掉了大约两百人。

They they laid off, I believe, 200 people in in combining the companies.

不过

But

对

Yep.

这倒是个不错的过渡，可以接着聊聊收购这个话题，后面我们再详细分析这笔交易的数据、评分和其他部分。

Well this is probably a good segue into acquisition category and we can get into some of the numbers of analyzing the deal later in grading and other segments.

但我觉得关键在于，这次收购到底意味着什么？

But I think it comes down to what was this acquisition?

对我来说，我觉得它其实符合我们好几个分类标准。

You know, mean for me I was thinking about it like it it actually kind of fits a bunch of our categories.

它毫无疑问是一个业务线。

Like it's a business line for sure.

苹果现在拥有Beats这个品牌。

Like you know Apple now owns Beats.

他们还在继续销售Beats耳机。

They're selling Beats headphones.

光是这一块，年收入就超过十亿美元了。

Which in in itself is over a billion dollar.

我的意思是，就算在被收购之前，2013到2014年的时候，仅耳机业务的收入就已经突破十亿美元了。

I mean even before the acquisition I think this 2013, 2014 numbers, but over $1,000,000,000 in revenue just on the headphones.

是的

Yep.

完全正确

Totally.

正是在那个时候，苹果收购了这家公司。

And that's when Apple acquired the company.

而且，这本身也是一个资产。

You know, it's also an asset.

毫无疑问，Beats这个品牌也是关键。

It's the brand of Beats for sure.

正如我们之前提到的，当时Beats已经是流行文化的重要部分，而苹果也因此获得了这份影响力。

As we've talked about, you know, that's was at the time and still is a huge part of pop culture that Apple's getting access to.

但如果非要我选一个最重要的，我觉得其实是人才。

But I think it's also like if I had to choose one, I think it's actually people.

而且我觉得，这件事和史蒂夫·乔布斯重返苹果之间，有不少有趣又出人意料的相似之处。

And I think, you know, there's there's a lot of really, in some ways, kind of funny and unexpected parallels to, the next acquisition here and, you know, Steve Jobs coming back to Apple.

我不觉得吉米和德雷对苹果的影响能跟史蒂夫·乔布斯相提并论，但确实有影响，而且他们之间有很长的合作关系，我觉得这跟AirPods也有关系。

I I wouldn't put Jimmy and Dre's impacted Apple anywhere near the level of Steve Jobs, but it is an impact for sure and and there's that long relationship and I think it comes back to the AirPods too.

不管Beats团队有没有参与AirPods的设计，关键在于他们对‘音频’这件事的理解——到底什么是音频？

Like whether or not the Beats team was involved in the AirPods, it is this like view of what is, you know, audio?

什么是音乐？

What is music?

音乐是纯粹的技术产物，还是生活中不可或缺的一部分？

Is it something technical or is it something that's like part of your life?

是的。

Yeah.

说到底，这涉及到好几个不同领域的交叉。

I mean, it's definitely a scattering of categories.

我当初分析这次收购的时候，思路是把耳机业务这一块先放一边。

The way that I was thinking about this acquisition and how to do the analysis, I sort of discarded I did discard the the headphones line of business.

它是个品牌，收入来源也特别好，而且自从被收购以来，表现一直在持续提升。

I mean, it's it's a it's a brand and it's a great, great source of revenue, and it's it's only continued to improve since they bought it.

虽然他们没有单独列出，但我觉得这些年来，Beats的影响力越来越强了。

Though they don't break it out, I think, Beats has become more more and more prominent over the years.

在我看来，他们当初买下的是两样东西。

What they, in my mind, bought was two things.

第一，是一个已经做得不错的应用和服务，这样他们就不必从零开始自主研发。

It's it's one, an existing app and service that was well done so that, you know, they they didn't have to start from scratch in house.

你可以想象，苹果早就知道要推出Apple Music，也明白他们想在音乐流媒体这个他们开创的领域里跟Spotify竞争，而当时这个领域正被彻底颠覆，他们必须在这个变化的世界里站稳脚跟。

You could imagine Apple being you know, knowing they were gonna do Apple Music and knowing that they wanted to compete with Spotify in this world where their a thing they pioneered, music over the Internet, was being largely disrupted and they needed to become a player in the changing world.

他们当然完全能自己从头做起。

They totally could have done it on their own.

没错。

Yep.

而且，就像之前那期讲Sound Jam的节目一样，苹果其实早就做过同样的选择。

Well and but but also Apple, I mean, in the Sound Jam episode, which is, like, totally the precursor to this episode, you know, they made the same decision.

就是买下一个技术扎实的产品，把它当作起点。

Like, let's buy a a good technical service and, like, you know, use that as a starting point.

没错。

Right.

所以这绝对不值三十亿美元。

And so that's not worth $3,000,000,000 for sure.

完全同意。

Totally.

这就是我的意思。

That's all that's where I

进展如何。

was going.

你知道，SoundJam 的价值在于它是一次股权收购。

You know, SoundJam is worth what was SoundJam is is An equity acquisition.

对。

Yeah.

大概一千万美元或者更少。

Like, 10,000,000 or less.

是的。

Yeah.

我看过一份分析，说你可以想想，如果他们决定自己动手去竞争，会怎么样。

One piece of analysis that I read was like, well consider if they had decided to do it on their own to compete, you know.

让我来描述一下这个场景。

Let me paint this picture.

他们的一个竞争对手靠着自家设备作为分发渠道，推出了一项人们生活中不可或缺的服务，并迅速崛起。

A competitor of theirs rises to prominence using their own devices as distribution in a thing that a service that people consider core to their lives.

这份分析提到的是谷歌地图。

And this analysis was talking about Google Maps.

苹果决定自己搞一个产品来竞争，推出了苹果地图，结果引发了巨大争议。

Apple decides to do something on their own to compete and comes out with Apple Maps, and there's, you know, large debate over how that's going.

不过我觉得，用苹果地图的人其实比大家在科技圈里承认的要多得多。

Although I think a lot more people use Apple Maps than, like, you know, at least in the tech world we give it credit for.

没错。

Right.

苹果在社交和服务方面一向不太在行，跟其他公司比起来有明显短板，所以让他们完全主导这项服务的产品设计，风险其实不小。

There's also an element of Apple they're not great at social, they're not great at services compared to other companies, so there's a lot of risk in them having complete and total control to shape the product of what does this service look like.

而他们收购Beats音乐，其实已经拿到了一个不错的起点。

And by buying, you know, Beats Music, they had a really good starting point.

不过，这些加起来也值不了三百亿美元。

Now, again, none of this is is worth $3,000,000,000.

其中一部分原因是因为耳机业务本身就已经做得很好了，光是买下这一块，别人就得花上十亿甚至更多。

Some of that is because the headphones business was already doing great, so anybody who wanted to just buy that thing would have to pay a billion or more for that on its own.

再加上，我们再来看，不错。

Then when you layer on, okay, great.

他们还顺带拿到了一个出色的音乐服务平台，这算是一种技术资产。

We're gonna get this scaffolding of a great music service, so call that a technology.

我本来想说这是产品，但其实我更想强调，还是叫产品吧。

I'd say product, but I I really well, let's say product.

但光有这些还不够，真正要跟Spotify抗衡，最关键的是Jimmy的人脉，还有Jimmy和Dre在行业里的地位。

What you really need on top of that to make the whole thing tick and to really start competing with Spotify is is Jimmy's relationship and Jim and and Beats, you know, Dre and Jimmy's position within the industry.

而要让苹果打造的这种技术和产品真正脱颖而出、实现规模化，关键就在于人才。

And so to to enable that sort of technology product that they built, to to really start to to be differentiated and and, and scale, you know, is is the talent there.

我完全同意，但我还想再进一步说一点。

I totally agree, but I I would even go one step farther.

也许这话听起来有点离经叛道，毕竟我们现在谈的是音频文件、Beats耳机这些事。

I think, maybe this is heresy, given, you know, like we're talking about the way audio files view, you know, Beats and whatnot headphones.

但我总觉得，这件事和Facebook收购Instagram有很多相似之处。

But I actually think there are a lot of parallels here to the Instagram acquisition of Facebook.

让我来描绘一下这个画面。

I'm just gonna paint this picture.

谁知道它会不会成功，或者需要多长时间才能成事？

Who knows if it would have been successful or how long it would have taken?

我觉得，长远来看，Beats本来完全有可能成为苹果的强劲对手。

I think Beats could have been a serious threat to Apple in the long term.

吉米和德雷，尤其是吉米——也许德雷也一样。

Jimmy and Dre, and particularly Jimmy well, maybe Dre too.

他平时话不多，所以我们也不太清楚。

He just doesn't talk much, so we don't know.

但他们对Beats这个品牌和这个组合，心里是有明确愿景的，对吧？

But they had a vision, right, of, like, what was Beats and what was this combination?

吉米在这些采访里经常提到，他有多崇拜、多敬重史蒂夫·乔布斯那种科技与人文结合的理念。

Jimmy talks about it all the time in these interviews, how much he idolized, you know, he respected Steve Jobs' view of like technology plus liberal arts.

至于Beats在这一点上做得怎么样，大家或许有不同看法，但那确实是他们的核心追求。

And you could argue with like how well Beats did on that but like that was the driving vision.

我们不只是做耳机的。

It was like we're not just a headphones company.

我们也不只是科技公司。

We're not just a tech company.

我们更不只是音乐公司。

We're also not just a music company.

我们是要融入你生活的。

We are like part of your life.

我们和客户之间的关系非常深厚。

And like the relationship that we have to our customers is super deep.

苹果不也是这样吗？

And that's exactly what Apple is too, right?

也许我们现在正在不知不觉地走向原本可能的发展方向。

Like, so maybe we're bleeding into what would have happened otherwise now.

但要是这笔收购没发生，Beats 现在会是什么样子？

But like say this acquisition hadn't happened, like what does Beats look like now?

如果 Beats 独立发展十年，它会变成什么样？

What does Beats look like in ten years as a standalone company?

就像苹果当初那样，你想想，史蒂夫·乔布斯回来之后，从第二代苹果开始，搞了个 MP3 播放器，对吧？

Like, just like Apple started with, you know, let's take, you know, Apple version two, you know, after Steve Jobs comes back, starts with like a m p three player, you know, like, oh, yeah.

这听起来不错。

That's nice.

苹果现在做起消费电子产品了。

Apple's doing consumer electronics now.

这还挺可爱的。

That's that's cute.

现在苹果成了全球最大的公司，和全球数十亿用户建立了最亲密的关系。

Now Apple's the biggest company in the world and like the most personal relationship with like billions of people around the world.

也许耳机正是 Beats 本来可以走的路。

Maybe headphones was the way that, like, Beats could have done that too.

这确实值得思考，尤其是我们之前几期提到的未来场景——耳机和手表，或者耳机和其他可穿戴设备，可能会取代手机。但你要想做到这一点，就必须掌控整个生态系统。

It's interesting to think about, especially in the future that we've, like, painted on other episodes where where headphones and and a watch or headphones and a wearable in some way are are the the new phone, But you sort of do need to be the ecosystem owner of all of those things, in order to do that.

而苹果在这方面，新进入者想跟它竞争，难度真的很大。

And Apple, I think it's pretty hard to be a new entrant to commute with Apple there.

没错。

Yeah.

完全同意。

Totally.

要说 Beats 单靠自己，没有苹果的技术支持，想做成这些，恐怕会非常吃力，对吧？

Well, think Beats would have had a really hard time technologically doing it on their own without Apple, right?

但这就又回到了AirPods，对吧？

But this is where it comes back to the AirPods, right?

计算的未来到底会走向哪里？

And like where is computing going?

科技又会往哪个方向发展？

Where is technology going?

还有，社会本身呢？

But also where is you know, is society?

人文学科又将何去何从？

Where is the liberal arts going?

所以回到人和关系上，就像你说的，吉米和德雷，他们真正懂人们为什么用这些东西。

Like and that's why back to the people, the relationships like you're saying, like Jimmy and Dre, like, they understand why people use things.

人们买耳机、听音乐，是因为音乐带来的情感触动，而不是因为技术参数，这一点苹果在iPhone上把握得特别准。

Like, people buy headphones and listen to music because of the emotional, you know, impact of the music, not because of the tech specs, you know, like and I think that's what Apple got so right about the iPhone.

对吧？

Right?

这根本不是那种我们经常聊的脱口秀话题。

Like it's not about like, you know, like, you know, the talk show we talked about this all the time.

苹果从不拿性能参数来做营销。

Like Apple doesn't market on speeds and feeds.

它卖的是这些东西怎么改变你的生活。

Like it markets on like how this impacts your life.

在我看来，这才是最关键的地方——讲的是人，是情感，所以这笔30亿美元的收购才成了苹果历史上最大的一笔，也正因如此，SoundJam才被当作人才收购。

To me, that's like the biggest thing here is a people deal and and that's why this is a $3,000,000,000 acquisition and Apple's largest ever and that's why SoundJam was a, you know, acquihire.

天哪。

Wow.

这话说得可真够大胆的。

It's a bold statement.

如果你要具体分析，肯定有模型能算出每部分的贡献。

If you were to attribute I'm sure there is actual models with attribution to this.

如果要把这30亿美元分摊到Beats Electronics和Beats Music两家公司，你会怎么分配？

If you were to attribute that $3,000,000,000 allocated across, Beats Electronics and Beats Music, how would you do it?

我觉得苹果不会这么做，也不该这么看，因为重点其实是AirPods，这跟Beats根本没关系。

I just see, I don't I don't think Apple would do that and and I don't think that's how you should think about it because it's about like again, about like the AirPods, you know, like, which isn't Beats at all.

对吧？

Right?

关键是这个愿景能走多远，Beats这家公司、这个品牌，还有Jimmy和Dre这些领导者，能怎么帮苹果实现它。

But it's about like what this vision can get to and how Beats as a company, Beats as a brand, Jimmy and Dre as leaders can help Apple, you know, get there.

而且他们顺带带来了许多非常有价值的资源。

And they just happen to bring a lot of really helpful assets along the way.

没错。

Yeah.

但你没法给这些资源标价。

And ask but you can't value the assets.

对吧？

Right?

再说回SoundJam的事。

Like, again, back to SoundJam.

SoundJam根本没什么品牌影响力。

Like, SoundJam had no brand.

SoundJam虽然有用户在用，也喜欢这个产品，但那不算品牌。

Sound SoundJam had no like, they had customers who who, like, used the product and liked it.

对吧？

Right?

它可没到让NFL都禁止它的地步。

But, like, it wasn't, like, be like, the NFL wasn't banning SoundJam.

你懂的。

You know?

对吧？

Right?

天哪。

Oh, man.

是的。

Yeah.