If high quality audio is your thing, then this is your month. Several high profile celebrities announced new headphone lines at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show last week.
See: Sound Advice: 5 Celebrity Headphone Lines
Entertainer Chris “Ludacris†Bridges was not to be undone by the competition. Soul, his line of in-ear and on-ear HD headphones with Signeo USA, come in five different models, as well as in varying colors and includes noise cancelation technology. Like his contemporaries, which includes Curtis “50 Cent†Jackson, Bridges, didn’t want to slap his name on a product and leave the hard work to the professionals. The Atlanta entrepreneur spent a lot of time with audio engineers and designers at Signeo dictating what he wanted the product to look like and how he wanted it to perform.
Bridges, who also collaborated with Norwegian cognac house Birkedal Hartmann to create Conjure cognac, is no stranger to building brands. BlackEnterprise.com sat with him in Las Vegas to discuss his partnership with Signeo USA and find out his strategy for building equity in his name and businesses.
BlackEnterprise.com: What type of input did you provide towards the engineering of the Soul headphones?
Bridges: We went through a lot of stages. It’s been a process and we were extremely specific about every detail. After two years we’ve gotten exactly what we wanted. It’s the closest thing to perfection. There is a lot of competition out there, but me personally, I feel like there is no competition when it comes to the overall sound quality and the design of the headphones.
Soul by Ludacris
Why did you decide to partner with Signeo USA?
I wanted a headphone manufacturer that was just as detailed about every single thing as I was in trying to offer the best product on the market. In terms of me building my brand, I always strive for perfection and I wanted to partner with a company that does the same thing.
As someone with several businesses, what advice would you give in regards to growing different streams of revenue?
It’s all about finding the best individuals that know what they are doing. I might have a passion for something. That doesn’t mean I know every technical aspect of it. So it’s about growing a strong team around you of individuals that are experienced and just as passionate as you are.
Check out Bridges as he explains the differences between his various Soul headphone models.
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Marcia Wade Talbert
Marcia is a multimedia content producer focusing on technology at Black Enterprise Magazine. In this capacity she writes and assigns stories to educate readers about social media; digital integration; gadgets, apps, and software for business and professional development; minority tech startups; and careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In 2012, she received two Salute to Excellence Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and was recognized by Blacks in Technology (BiT) as one of the Top 10 Black achievers in the tech arena for 2011 at SXSW in Austin, Texas. She has spoken about technology on panels for New York Social Media Week, at The 2012 Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Summit, as well as at Black Enterprise’s Entrepreneurs Conference and Women of Power Summit. In 2011, SocialWayne.com chose her as one of 28 People of Color Impacting the Social Web, and through crowdsourcing she was listed as one of BlackWeb2.0's/HP's 50 Most Notable African American Tastemakers in Social Media and Technology for 2010. Since taking on the role of Tech editor in September 2010, she has conceived and produced five cover stories on Technology and/or STEM and countless articles, videos, and slideshows online. Before joining BlackEnterprise.com as an interactive general assignment reporter in 2008, she freelanced with Black Enterprise beginning in 2003 while working as the technical editor at Prepared Foods magazine. There she further honed her writing skills and became an authority on food ingredients, including ingredients used in food fortification and enrichment. Meanwhile, her freelancing with Black Enterprise and BlackEnterprise.com helped her stay current on issues pertaining to the financial and business welfare of African Americans. As a general reporter for Black Enterprise she attended and reported on the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, where she interviewed Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor and assistant to President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Marcia has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture with an emphasis in food science from the University of Minnesota, and a Master of Science degree in journalism from Roosevelt University in Chicago. En route to her secondary degree, she served as the editor-in-chief of the Roosevelt University Torch, a weekly, student-run newspaper. An avid photographer and videographer, Marcia is one of several employees at BLACK ENTERPRISE who interned for the publishing company as a college student. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, a food scientist; her seventeen-month-old daughter; and “The Catâ€, but still considers Chicago home.
