Kevin Rips and Burns S. Jobs
Posted on:: October 18th, 2003
From Kevin Marks via email:
At the iTunes Music launch, Jobs said something very wrong – that record labels should be the arbiters of taste – that they edit for our own good, and that unsigned bands need not apply.
The key point of digital media is that we can all edit, so I edited him.
Direct links to the streams of me ripping and mixing Jobs & Sarah:
Categories: Uncategorized dw
The links appear to have a problem. I’m getting a timeout after Jobs makes his initial comment. In any case, I think I see what you’re getting at. I also watched Jobs the other day and I was quite uncomfortable with his statement. He’s right, of course, that record labels do provide a service of sorts by finding quality acts and bringing them ‘to market’ so to speak. (This service may be overrated and frought with problems, as many people have suggested in recent times, but it’s a service nonetheless.) At the same time, however, one worries about the incredible barriers they set up between artists and audience. One worries that there are many hundreds of worthy artists who cannot be heard or seen simply because some boardroom full of stuffed-shirt bean-counters don’t see them increasing the bottom line of the balance sheet.
In other news, I believe Apples iTunes Music Store does truly represent a worthy compromise between copyright holders and those who wish to listen to music. It’s not perfect, maybe, but it does represent a radical swing towards consumer rights with regard to online purchases of popular music. I am a satisfied customer and I highly recommend it.