MILWAUKEE — Around the same time Beatlemania was sweeping the globe in the mid-60s, Koss Corporation was innovating the audio technology landscape, developing some of the first personal headphones technology.
WTMJ’s Sandy Maxx visited the Koss Corporation and its Marketing Manager, Martin Moore, to check out the iconic ‘Beatlephones’ developed locally around the same time The Beatles rocked Milwaukee Arena exactly 60 years ago on Sept. 4, 1964.
Milwaukee-based Koss Corporation is responsible for some of the earliest personal headphones, developed by John C. Koss as an accessory to smaller record players. The market’s response to these headphones paved the way for his company’s future.
“[Koss] went to an audio show [and] showed off the record player,” Moore said. “No one cared about the record player, they cared about the headphones because they were the first pair of stereo headphones.”
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Fast forward two years later, as the company pivoted its priority toward headphones. In the early days, they cost $29.99. Nowadays, a good pair of Koss headphones will cost you about $279.99. But neither were as valuable as the baby blue, Beatles-themed headphones that were considered a flop when they went on the market.
The baby blue headphones had John and George on one side with Paul and Ringo on the other, but did not sell as well as the company originally expected they would in the height of Beatlemania. Having seen what The Beatles were capable of during their 1964 concert in Milwaukee, Koss officials thought they could partner with the iconic band and capitalize.
Moore told WTMJ that sales for these limited-run headphones were lackluster in those early days. However, the popularity of these headphones has dramatically shifted in the decades since. Maxx found a pair of original ‘Beatlephones’ on eBay which sold for at least $4,777 in 2024. These days, they are one of the most sought-after pieces of Beatles memorabilia aside from records or instruments themselves.
Listen to the full conversation from ‘What On Tap with Sandy Maxx’ here in your browser, or on your podcast platform of choice.
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