Considering everything Steve Jobs has done for the music industry it’s a surprise that he never received a Grammy Award while he was still breathing. The invention of the iPod turned the music industry upside down. He revolutionized the way the world listens to music. In the matter of a decade CDs and cassette tapes have nearly vanished along with any remnants of the megastores that used to sell them.
Apple has become the middleman between the music industry and the people, replacing stores like Virgin Records, Sam Goody and Tower Records. For better of worse, Jobs helped completely overhaul the way the entire music industry is run. After Napster, P2P downloads and torrents threatened the livelihood of record companies, and the FBI swooped in shutting down the websites and arresting 14-year-old girls for illegally downloading Britney Spears albums, the iTunes store became a salvation for music fans who feared legal prosecution.
Eventually people got used to to paying for music again. Apple’s iTunes turned out to be a compromise between the fans and the industry. The price of downloading an album was significantly more affordable than the inflated prices at record stores so the fans were happy, and the industry was happy because people were paying money for music again. Win win. Now give Steve his Grammy.
“As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books.” the news release said. “A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased.”
Today, the majority of society depends on Apple products to connect our lives to our music, whether it be through iTunes, iPods, iPads, iPhones or MacBooks. Jobs’s inpact on the music world is immense. He changed the way we live. There aren’t many people who you can say that about without exaggerating. Anyway if Bruno Mars can get nominated for six Grammys, Steve Jobs definitely deserves one.
