Monster has announced that it will be parting ways with Jimmy Lovine and Dr Dre’s “Beats By Dre” headphones at the end of their contract.  Monster is the company that manufactures the popular headphone line.  Beats Electronics has chosen not to renew the contract for another 5 years.  What is causing this split after such a highly-successful headphone launch?  Simple, credit and profit.  Both Monster and Beats have held  53% of the current headphone market, including celebrity endorsed lines.  However, Beats has licensing deals with the Chrysler 300 S sedan, HTC smartphones, and HP for their Beats-powered laptop.

“After the split, Beats will retain the rights to the bass-thumping sound technology, the prominent circular design, and the brand. So last year Lee asked nearly half his 650 employees to come up with Monster-branded headphones. “We’re competing with ourselves,” Lee says of the Beats products he’s trying to outdo. “We can be the Apple (AAPL) of the headphones space, with or without Beats.”

Monster will be releasing 8 new headphone lines on its own next year.

(via hhnm & businessweek)