Steve Jobs.. The Rolling Stone Interview

shawnj · December 8, 2003 11:40AM

Nice interview in Rolling Stone about the role of Apple in the music industry.

"Is somebody going to Argentina with suitcases full of hundred-dollar bills? What's going on?"

My favorite part.

hom · December 8, 2003 12:24PM

Steve admitted that Apple is losing Mac sales to people that are now buying iPods for Windows instead.

A lot of the interview is rehashing of other stuff we know, but it's still nice to see Steve diss MS, Dell, and the music companies.

applenut · December 8, 2003 12:37PM

Steve may be a bit of an ass but he's also pretty $$$$ing cool.8)

mac+ · December 8, 2003 4:07PM

ShawnJ - thanks for the "heads-up".

Good read. I liked his closing comment...

"So you see the recording industry moving in that direction?"

No. I said I think that's the remedy. Whether the patient will swallow the medicine is another question.

Crystal clear.

barto · December 8, 2003 4:26PM

I did not think it was possible, but I have even LESS respect for the music industry after that interview.

applenut · December 8, 2003 4:49PM

Do you think he gets these questions before hand or something?

His responses seem well-thought out and witty..... or maybe he's just that swift of a guy.

either way, he has some classic lines there.

pensieve · December 8, 2003 5:06PM

Apple can't PAY for this kind of publicity. It's great. I don't know if RS is as trend-setting as it was back in the day (late '90s), but if it's anywhere near as influential, this is another nail in the coffin of the also-rans in the online music/music player game. This was my favorite quote:

Quote:

And one of the reasons Apple was able to do what we have done was because we are perceived by the music industry as the most creative technology company.

Apple knows it's cool. And the kids are starting to know it too. And we all know that kids drive a very large percentage of purchases. Sure, they won't buy the computers, but they will be the ones who get the iPods and music. Good stuff.

superkarate monkeydeathcar · December 8, 2003 5:13PM

i like the way he plays the record companies, he kisses up early and hits them spot-on at the end with his "no advance" business model. although i think he was pretty generous in saying 2 out of 10 break even.

curiousuburb · December 8, 2003 5:31PM

I thought the Apple logo as a halo behind his head was cute, too.

mac+ · December 8, 2003 5:38PM

Quote:

Originally posted by applenut

Do you think he gets these questions before hand or something?

His responses seem well-thought out and witty..... or maybe he's just that swift of a guy.

either way, he has some classic lines there.

I reckon he has probably been asked about this topic so many times before, by various executives and other IT industry pundits, that he has some well considered responses already in his memory bank.

That's not to say, though, that he is not a quick thinker or requires people to write copy for him. I think he comes across as alarmingly straight-forward and is quite direct when he replies to the questions. He understands the complexity of an issue and is confident enough to tell others what will and won't work in a succinct manner and back it up with some sound reasoning.

I'm glad he's back with Apple!

buonrotto · December 8, 2003 6:44PM

I thought this was interesting:

Quote:

So we had to go to each artist, one by one, and convince them, too. A few said, "We don't want to do that."Others said, "We'll let you distribute whole albums but not individual tracks." And we declined.

superkarate monkeydeathcar · December 8, 2003 6:48PM

do you think if the beatles said that to him, he would acquiesce?

hom · December 8, 2003 7:04PM

Quote:

Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

do you think if the beatles said that to him, he would acquiesce?

I doubt it. Steve seems to think of iTMS as being bigger then any one artist even the Beatles and I think he is right.

@homenow · December 8, 2003 9:34PM

Quote:

How about movies? Do you see an iTunes movie store?

We don't think that's what people want. A movie takes forever to download -- there's no instant gratification.

I hope that Apple has a plan here to employ QuickTime in some way. People are already downloading movies instant gratification or no. Also as Broadband becomes more the norm those download times will decrease. I think there is a significant market that Apple could capitalize on with video that they appear to be ignoring at this time. I would hate to see them try to play catch-up in 12-18 months. I know that right now, with my cable modem I would be more than willing to set it to download movies before I go to bed, it beats running out to Best Buy and waiting in line at the check out counter.

satchmo · December 8, 2003 10:16PM

Quote:

Originally posted by applenut

Do you think he gets these questions before hand or something?

Suffice it to say, you don't become a CEO (of any corporation) without being a good speaker, and most of all, a good thinker.

It also doesn't hurt that Jobs' is probably one of the best marketers around. And of course...RDF.

cosmo · December 8, 2003 10:38PM

Quote:

Originally posted by @homenow

I hope that Apple has a plan here to employ QuickTime in some way. People are already downloading movies instant gratification or no. Also as Broadband becomes more the norm those download times will decrease. I think there is a significant market that Apple could capitalize on with video that they appear to be ignoring at this time. I would hate to see them try to play catch-up in 12-18 months. I know that right now, with my cable modem I would be more than willing to set it to download movies before I go to bed, it beats running out to Best Buy and waiting in line at the check out counter.

I think broadband has a long way to come before this happens. Good DivX (or mp4) movies are gonna be 1+GB files...

thats a lot of expensive bandwidth for apple.

also, quicktime can't decode the AC3 audio used in DVDs.

the movie store is an interesting idea, but it won't happen until movie sharing becomes as wide spread as music sharing.

that won't be for a while.

although i do have access to movies via my campus network, i still rent DVDs. and i think most people are in the same boat

downloading and watching on a small computer screen is just too much of a pain in the butt

the movie industry isn't losing money the way the audio industry was/is

their modes of distribution are working just fine, and if it ain't broke...

curiousuburb · December 8, 2003 10:59PM

Quote:

Originally posted by satchmo

Suffice it to say, you don't become a CEO (of any corporation) without being a good speaker, and most of all, a good thinker

But somehow you can become President without these skills... ?

what a messed up country.

aquatic · December 9, 2003 1:27AM

He reminds me of John Dvorak in regards to Divx. I remember the Idiot aka Dvorak on TechTV saying no one would ever want to download a movie.

3ivx 4.5 is getting real close to DVD quality, and fits on a CD. Eventually 3ivx for all purposes will BE DVD quality. There are 100 minute CDs out now too. If my college didn't cap Fasttrack and all other p2p movies would download in under an hour I'm sure. Theoretically it maxes out at a megabyte a second, and I've seen some fastass computers on p2p networks that reach that. Movies will be the next thing to go online at stores but lots of people are on dialup. In a few years if 802.16 pans out or something else solves the Last Mile problem then we'll see the iFlicks store or something with a cooler name.

applenut · December 9, 2003 2:32AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Aquatic

He reminds me of John Dvorak in regards to Divx. I remember the Idiot aka Dvorak on TechTV saying no one would ever want to download a movie. 3ivx 4.5 is getting real close to DVD quality, and fits on a CD. Eventually 3ivx for all purposes will BE DVD quality. There are 100 minute CDs out now too. If my college didn't cap Fasttrack and all other p2p movies would download in under an hour I'm sure. Theoretically it maxes out at a megabyte a second, and I've seen some fastass computers on p2p networks that reach that. Movies will be the next thing to go online at stores but lots of people are on dialup. In a few years if 802.16 pans out or something else solves the Last Mile problem then we'll see the iFlicks store or something with a cooler name.

I downloaded Finding Nemo in 28 minutes here and it uses 3ivx and is literally DVD-quality

Don't worry, I also own the DVD...but it's at home.

israces · December 10, 2003 12:31PM

Quote:

Originally posted by satchmo

Suffice it to say, you don't become a CEO (of any corporation) without being a good speaker, and most of all, a good thinker.

It also doesn't hurt that Jobs' is probably one of the best marketers around. And of course...RDF.

As a former interviewer of the moderately famous, I suggest that the journalist has a lot of control in how smart or stupid the interviewee comes off in an article like that. That's why certain people get to interview certain other people. It's all marketing.

amorph · December 10, 2003 12:49PM

Quote:

Originally posted by satchmo

Suffice it to say, you don't become a CEO (of any corporation) without being a good speaker

Have you ever heard a Gil Amelio keynote? Or for that matter, a Bill Gates keynote?

Those two would make the most avid Toastmaster throw himself off a bridge in despair.

Steve Jobs.. The Rolling Stone Interview

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