Tributes have poured in from around the globe at news of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passing. Leaving an undisputed mark on not just the technology industry, but importantly in film and music, Jobs steered Apple from a company down on its luck to a revolutionary force that changed the way we not only listen to music, but how we buy it.
Unsurprisingly many have commented on the legacy of Jobs, a testament to his influence with many figures including US President Barack Obama, Steven Spielberg, Google co-founder Larry Page and many other influential figures making statements about his life. But perhaps the most vocal group has been from the music industry, who Jobs transformed in 2001 when he introduced to the world the iPod and iTunes. A short 10 years later over 300 million iPods have been sold worldwide and over 13 billion songs sold though iTunes.
Below we take a small sample of some music’s heavyweights and their reaction to the death of an icon.
Bill Werde, editorial director Billboard magazine: “Other companies sold digital music before Apple. Other companies made digital music available on computers and digital phones and used it in commercials. Apple’s brilliance – and I don’t think anyone doubts that this was Steve Jobs’ brilliance – was that Apple made it exciting and simple and effortless and fun. Before Steve Jobs, digital music was math class. After, it was recess. People talk about the differences between style and substance but with Jobs, the two were one.”
Cary Sherman, Recording Industry Assn. of America Chairman: “He was a true visionary who forever transformed how fans access and enjoy music. With the introduction of the iTunes software and other platforms, Steve and Apple made it once again easy and accepted to pay for music.”
Edgar Bronfman Jr, Warner Music Group Chairman: “To be a genius in any field is rare enough; to be a genius in three is impossible. Steve did the impossible. His incomparable brilliance in technology, design and business transformed not only the music industry, but many others, and in the process, changed our world.”
Roger Faxon, chief executive of the EMI Group: “Steve had an incredible ability to harness the power of innovation to satisfy and stimulate consumer demand in a way that few have ever been able to achieve”
Rick Rubin, chairman of Columbia Records: “I can’t think of anyone who had more impact on our culture and quality of life than Steve Jobs. His vision opened the door to the internet for everyone, his vision allowed us to carry our record collection in our pocket, his vision completely changed the idea of what a mobile phone is and can do, his vision changed what an animated movie could aspire to be.”
Russell Simmons, Def Jam co-founder: “Steve Jobs was a prophet of that uniquely American genius, the Creative Entrepreneur — something no one can copy, no one can outsource, no banker can hire — a visionary who created a movement that changed generations through painstaking tenacity, even after he was fired in 1985 from the company he founded for thinking too far forward.”
Stevie Wonder, 25-time Grammy Award Winner: “The one thing people aren’t talking about is how he has made his technology accessible to the blind and the deaf and people who are quadriplegics and paraplegics. He has affected not just my world, but the world of millions of people who without that technology would not be able to discover the world.”
Trent Reznor: Thanks for the tools, the inspiration, the possibilities.
Neil Diamond: iSad.
