Your Ears Belong to Dr. Dre: That'll Be $300 (Update 1)

Automobile maker Chrysler has installed Beats Audio systems in two car models so far, the Chrysler 300 S and the Dodge Charger. A subwoofer in the trunk comes standard.

Building further on Apple's model, Beats will take on iTunes with its first acquisition. In a deal arranged in 2012 through HTC, Beats purchased the streaming portion of music service MOG for $14 million.

Ian Rogers, founder of Topspin Media, has been hired to head MOG's relaunch as a Beats brand, with composer and Nine Inch Nails former frontman Trent Reznor as chief creative officer.

With the project Beats said it ultimately hopes to create "the first truly end-to-end music experience."

Meanwhile, Young is still out there, building the Dr. Dre brand with several high-profile recording projects and events each year, including teasers from a much-anticipated forthcoming studio album (for example, the cinematic "I Need a Doctor" video on YouTube) and 2012's headline-grabbing coup de theatre, raising Tupac Shakur from the dead as a hologram at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (also available on YouTube.)

All of this practically guarantees Dr. Dre will make Forbes' list of most highly paid entertainers again in 2013 and 2014 and well into the future.

His is a story could serve as a model for any entrepreneur, in or out of the music business: Young takes the long view on projects, emphasizes both quality and style, puts his personal integrity on the line. Most importantly, he relentlessly analyzes his assets and builds on them.

Those practical skills are what propelled Young across another important milestone last year. Not a Hall of Fame entry or a meaningless award for his artistic genius. No footprints outside Grauman's Chinese. More to the point: The straight-out-of-Compton success story now has a tax shelter in Ireland.

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-- Written by Carlton Wilkinson in Asbury Park, N.J.

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