HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, is delighted to announce that it has achieved a tremendous new milestone. The convergence of a thriving headphone market, global demand for high-quality audio, and JBL’s exceptional ability to understand and anticipate customer needs has propelled JBL past the threshold of 200 million headphone units sold. JBL is the world's leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of professional loudspeakers and studio monitors for musicians, tours, cinema, and recording & broadcasting applications; it leverages these credentials in the consumer headphones category, producing high-quality products that only a true audio company can deliver.

A booming market Over the past decade, headphones have played a central role in JBL’s mission to help people get the most out of every moment they spend listening. Since 2020, demand for headphones has soared, driven by major new trends arising from the pandemic, such as increased HD music streaming, an uptake of in-gaming music consumption and podcasts, home-based work and teleconferencing, and even sports and biometrics uses. This unprecedented momentum is evident not only in industry forecasts predicting market growth at a CAGR of 17.6% between now and 2028, but also in JBL’s remarkable results: in addition to the milestone of 200 million headphone units sold, JBL’s Headphones division surpassed Sony in volume share in Q2, making JBL the #1 audio brand in volume in the overall headphone market and #2 after Apple (telephone provider).

Quality at the heart of demand Ever attuned to evolving customer needs, JBL was among the first to focus on immersive listening experiences and has consistently exceeded expectations with rich, innovative, and beautifully designed headphone offerings for music lovers, sports enthusiasts, gaming fans, and even young listeners getting their first taste of high-quality audio.

“We are thrilled to hit this 200 million milestone, which affirms our ability to delight listeners with the best-sounding headphones on the market. JBL’s engineering teams are constantly exploring new horizons of innovation, and we are very excited about what the future of audio holds,” said Dave Rogers, President of HARMAN’s Lifestyle Division.

Keeping Heads Bobbing with Stunning Sound JBL has enriched the headphone space with dynamic products since it entered the consumer headphones category in 2016. Chief among JBL’s latest headphone releases is the JBL Tour PRO 2. It is JBL’s most powerful and feature-rich headphone offering yet; it includes immersive JBL Spatial Sound, true adaptive noise-cancelling technology, and the customizable sound capacity of Personi-fi 2.0. In addition to offering listeners a smart, seamless experience and superior audio, JBL Tour PRO 2 includes the world’s first smart charging case with a 1.45”-inch LED touch display. Without the need to so much as touch their smartphone, users can manage music, customize their earbuds, and receive calls, messages, and social media notifications in real time—all by simply tapping the touch display.

Eyes on the future With a focus on quality, comfort, customization, innovation, and sustainability, JBL’s vision for the future of headphones is bolder than ever. The latest AI technology can already provide adaptive music that reacts to the listener’s heart rate and plays the music they need to hear. In the future, headphones will feature 3D rendering algorithms that can imitate reverberation in spaces like a cathedral or a gymnasium. This promises gaming headphones that are aware of the spatial environment and can perfectly mimic the reverberations inside the virtual places that an on-screen character explores, resulting in truly believable, truly immersive experiences. Accurate spatial audio will also have a huge role to play in the metaverse; Mark Zuckerberg himself has said that “getting spatial audio right is key to delivering a realistic sense of presence in the metaverse.”