Thursday, August 13, 2009

Dr. Dre Teams With Hewlett-Packard



A new alliance between hip-hop impresario Dr. Dre, Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine, and computer maker Hewlett-Packard aims to save digital music.

No, this is not an attempt to fix the record industry's business woes. The goal is to lift the sound quality of the too-often tinny tunes squeaking out of our ear buds, and it's an ambitious plan nonetheless. HP will release premium-priced laptops, headsets, and software featuring the "Beats by Dr. Dre" brand sometime this fall, music industry sources with knowledge of the offering told CNET News.

It's not tough to see how HP and Dr. Dre can help one another. HP will lend the "Beats by Dr. Dre" credibility among hard-core sound enthusiasts. In exchange, Dre, who has produced hit albums for Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and 50 Cent, transfers to HP laptops some of his street cred with a younger generation of music fans and computer buyers. Who can argue that Iovine and Dr. Dre don't know high quality sound? Meanwhile, Dre is stil working on "Detox" out sometime this year perhaps.

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