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Monster CEO Noel Lee

LONDON, United Kingdom – With his deep background in music, former drummer Noel Lee spotted a gap in the market for quality headphones that has brought him recognition as a visionary.

So he was a natural partner for Nokia, the world’s biggest phone maker by volume.
The CEO of Monster really gets the market.

Lee was a guest at Nokia World 2011 last week and Conversations interviewed him about the secret of his success.

“At one time people would only wear big headsets in the privacy of their home. But now they are seen as part of what you wear and who you are.”

His products are a perfect fit with Nokia’s quest to fuse brilliant hardware and software design. And he admires the new Lumia phones.

“They handle media so well,” he says. “Some don’t, like Android, for example. The new Nokia Windows phones make it so easy to acquire music.”

Lee is passionate about audio quality and, with great marketing and design, he has managed to persuade millions to turn to his brand to do justice to the sound coming from their handsets.

“Phones have become so much more than phones,” he says. “And it’s vital that your device can handle audio, video and games to a high standard.”

Nokia Purity headset by Monster

Lee explains that, as use of personal mp3 players has rocketed over the past two decades, sound quality has dropped.

“Millions of kids have never experienced the big speaker sound as my generation has,” he says. “But that is changing. This partnership with Nokia allows the user to get the music out of the phone for a great sound experience.”

Lee knows that his success goes further than engineering quality sound into the product.

“If people feel they look good, it makes them feel good. And people will pay what it takes to achieve this.

“Users might not be able to afford a Porsche, but they can afford the best headset. We styled the Purity headsets with Nokia designers.

“We had in mind the fashion sense of the user and wanted to use that to complement the phone. The marketing plan that Nokia has made really focuses on the emotion of enjoying the music.”

Lee has previously been associated with big names who promote his products, but the

Purity headsets have been designed to make everyone feel like a celebrity.

And he has tested them on a very broad range of music, from jazz giant Count Basie to Lady Gaga.

“These headsets are designed for all genres of music,” he says.

“You get a broad range of frequencies so that you can hear all of the music well.

“You have to test headphones on top notch recordings. Some of the oldest like, Count Basie are still the best.”

Lee also has advice for using the headphones.

“You must listen responsibly,” he says. “It’s OK to turn up the volume for a short time to get the full feeling of a concert.

“But if you listen too loud for long periods you risk damaging your ears.”

We can’t wait to put them to the test with the new Nokia Lumia phones.