Monster, the company that manufactures Dr. Dre's & Jimmy Iovine's "Beats By Dre" headphones, is now parting ways with Beats Electronic at the end of their current contract. Beats has decided not to renew their contract for another five years.
Monster has manufactured the headphones under an exclusive license since 2009. The two working together were very successful, having captured 53 percent of the $1 billion annual headphone market last year, as Business Week reports.
Iovine commented on the plans for Beats, saying, "we have very big ambitions for Beats beyond headphones. Music has got to succeed on the phone or else the record industry will never thrive.” He’s not very worried about the competition, “you never get anywhere if you’re always looking left and right,” he says. “They’re doing their thing, and we’re doing ours.”
However, Monster is competing: they are launching eight lines of headphones to take on Beats By Dre in the $1 billion dollar market.