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What Fake Steve Jobs Thinks Of The Music Industry

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by Felix Salmon
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Jul 05 2007 12:00am EDT

What (Fake) Steve Jobs Thinks of the Music Industry

Could Fake Steve Jobs become the Jon Stewart of the Econoblogosphere? Yes, he's funny – but he also has the most astute analysis of the simmering tensions between Apple and the music industry that I've seen anywhere.

Essentially, the record labels have finally seen the writing on the wall: they're being marginalized by the low cost of music production and the low cost of music distribution, which together make them increasingly irrelevant. At the same time, Apple has managed to find a way of making money out of music in the digital era, which is more than any of the record labels have done. So, in a fit of pique, they've decided that they're going to try to attack Apple – which is idiotic, really, because Apple's their only hope right now.

I very much doubt that the real Steve Jobs – who is perfectly happy to sell unencrypted MP3s which can play on any music player through iTunes – has an attitude different in any respect from Fake Steve Jobs. But Fake Steve is a better writer.

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