“Steve Jobs is so much more than Apple’s CEO,” Julia Boorstin reports for CNBC. “He’s also been Disney’s largest shareholder, since he sold his wildly successful Pixar to Disney in 2006. He owns 7.3 percent of Disney’s stock, some 138 million shares and he sits on Disney’s board. (No word yet from Disney on whether he has any plans to take a leave from Disney’s board). But Jobs’ real impact in the entertainment business is his innovation in content distribution.”
“First of course there’s iTunes which Jobs created, and has arguably revolutionized the music industry. It’s the most popular online music store with over 10 million songs; it doesn’t just dominate digital downloads, it defines the space,” Boorstin reports “iTunes has sold some six billion songs since the store launched in 2003. Other players have tried to compete, but it’s always been on iTunes terms, and when it comes to selling downloads iTunes has always won.”
“Apple has applied its same iTunes approach to movies and TV episodes. Its video business isn’t as dominant as its music business, but it is gaining steam. Apple has a catalog of 30,000 TV episodes and over 2,500 films, about 600 of which iare in high definition. It was no small feat for Steve Jobs to convince Hollywood of the benefit of selling digital episode downloads online, and he continues to expand the range of this business,” Boorstin reports.
Boorstin reports, “When Jobs is on his leave of absence none of the company’s existing contracts with content providers are in any jeapordy– they stretch years into the future. But the question is about new deals– if iTunes is negotiating additional contracts in the next few months, will the company have less power if Jobs isn’t sitting at the bargaining table?”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
All the new stuff is done with DRM Free Music
In a word: No.
“‘Steve Jobs’ impact on the entertainment industry”
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Now the media is going to count all the industries and things that Jobs had impact on.
This is a long road to go for them, and their are too eager to go — almost as if they are writing about a deceased person.
No, this did not happen yet, hold on.
Let them write him off. When he appears this summer, the bang will be that much louder.
My only worry is that Steve will enjoy his vacation.
Jobs didn’t create iTunes. He’s a very smart man, and sees opportunities and can envision how things could work together, but he is no creator. His company is extremely capable and have definitely benefitted from his vision and drive, but they will certainly be able to survive without him for a while.