Bose thinks it can be a media company for some reason

Bose 居然想转型做媒体公司，理由令人费解

Bose Studios is a record label, a movie studio, a podcast network, and a failure waiting to happen. Bose Studios 既是唱片公司，又是电影工作室、播客网络，还是一场注定要失败的尝试。

The history books are littered with the corpses of corporate record labels started by companies that had no business being in the music industry. Bose thinks it can be the exception to the rule. It thinks it can be Red Bull. And, while Bose has more of a right to dip its toes into the media world than Build-a-Bear, there’s little reason to believe it can succeed where so many others have failed. 历史书上堆满了各种企业唱片公司的“尸体”，这些公司本就不该涉足音乐产业。Bose 却认为自己能成为例外，它觉得自己能成为下一个红牛（Red Bull）。虽然比起 Build-a-Bear，Bose 涉足媒体领域似乎还算“名正言顺”，但并没有什么理由让人相信，在这么多前辈折戟沉沙的领域，它就能获得成功。

In an interview with Business Insider, Bose CMO Jim Mollica said the company had created Bose Studios as part of a move away from traditional “campaign-driven marketing.” A big element of that is going to be Bose Records, a new label the company has formed to “help break underappreciated or new artists.” The competition isn’t the big three — Sony, UMG, Warner — it’s independent labels already being squeezed in an era of bedroom producers and self-distribution. 在接受《商业内幕》（Business Insider）采访时，Bose 首席营销官 Jim Mollica 表示，公司成立 Bose Studios 是为了摆脱传统的“活动驱动型营销”。其中的核心部分是 Bose Records，这是一个新成立的唱片厂牌，旨在“帮助那些被低估或新人艺术家崭露头角”。它的竞争对手并非索尼、环球音乐或华纳这三大巨头，而是那些在卧室制作人和自主发行时代本就生存空间狭窄的独立厂牌。

Mollica was transparent about the real goal, though: build a library of music that Bose could feature in its commercials without having to pay the licensing rights for. He said that the company wouldn’t own the artists’ masters or take a share of their streaming or sales revenue, and that they’d be free to sign with other labels. That sounds extremely artist-friendly on its face, which is great. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about the new business venture. 不过，Mollica 也坦诚了其真实目的：建立一个音乐库，让 Bose 可以将其用于广告中，而无需支付版权费。他表示，公司不会拥有艺术家的母带版权，也不会从他们的流媒体或销售收入中分成，艺术家也可以自由签约其他厂牌。表面上看，这对艺术家非常友好，这固然很好。但关于这项新业务，我们还有很多未知之处。

Bose is primarily known for making consumer-grade audio gear that tries to put on airs. Most audiophiles will be quick to tell you that Bose products are overpriced and, at best, merely okay. What the company is undeniably great at is marketing. But selling mediocre Bluetooth speakers at inflated prices is very different from discovering talent and promoting artists. Mollica didn’t mention poaching A&R talent from other labels or any splashy celebrity partnerships to launch. Though he did mention that some “legendary Hollywood names” were attached to films and TV series being commissioned by Bose Studios. Bose 主要以制造那些试图显得“高端”的消费级音频设备而闻名。大多数发烧友会直言不讳地告诉你，Bose 的产品溢价过高，充其量只能算“还行”。但不可否认的是，该公司在营销方面确实非常出色。然而，以高价销售平庸的蓝牙音箱，与发掘人才和推广艺术家完全是两码事。Mollica 没有提到从其他厂牌挖角艺人统筹（A&R）人才，也没有提到任何引人注目的明星合作计划。不过他确实提到，一些“好莱坞传奇人物”已参与到 Bose Studios 委托制作的电影和电视剧项目中。

Which brings us to another issue: a lack of focus. Simply launching a record label is hard enough. Why does Bose — again, whose primary experience is in manufacturing audio hardware — think that it can also launch a movie studio, a podcast network, and a live event production company? These are all things that Mollica said are in the works, according to Business Insider. 这就引出了另一个问题：缺乏专注。仅仅创办一家唱片公司就已经够难了。为什么 Bose——再次强调，其主要经验在于制造音频硬件——认为自己还能同时创办电影工作室、播客网络和现场活动制作公司？据《商业内幕》报道，Mollica 表示这些项目都在筹备中。

Perhaps Bose will prove me wrong. But it seems just as likely that Bose Records will eventually find itself listed alongside Starbucks’ Hear Music, Scion A/V, W Records (W Hotels), Green Label Records (Mountain Dew), or TAG Records (Procter & Gamble). 也许 Bose 会证明我是错的。但同样很有可能的是，Bose Records 最终会和星巴克的 Hear Music、Scion A/V、W Records（W 酒店）、Green Label Records（激浪饮料）或 TAG Records（宝洁）一样，被列入失败的名单。

Sure, you could argue that Bose, as an audio company, has more of a right to dive into the music industry than those failed ventures. But they featured celebrity endorsements, partnerships with bigger labels, or, at the very least, some specific cultural hook. Bose Studios just seems desperate and unsolvable. 当然，你可以辩称 Bose 作为一家音频公司，比那些失败的案例更有资格涉足音乐产业。但那些案例至少还有明星代言、与大厂牌的合作，或者至少有一些特定的文化噱头。而 Bose Studios 看起来只是显得绝望且毫无章法。