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Steve Jobs Awarded Posthumous Grammy

Posted by Unknown on from the unreleased-jobs-dubstep-record-out-next-week dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Recognizing Steve Jobs's immense contribution to music, he was the recipient of the Grammy Trustees Award at the Grammy's this past Sunday. The award is handed out annually to 'individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.'" Eddy Cue, head of iTunes, accepted the Grammy in place of Jobs.

12 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Sigh by Wolfling1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What a crock. Did we expect any better from the music industry?

    1. Re:Sigh by Karellen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The award is not for "contributions to the recording industry", it's for "significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording."

      Steve Jobs' contributions to the "recording industry" may well have been negative or damaging, but they have nothing to do with the field of recording. They were entirely to do with content distribution, which is totally different.

      (IANA sound engineer, but I know a few...)

      --
      Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
    2. Re:Sigh by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What a crock. Did we expect any better from the music industry?

      Like Steve Jobs and Apple or not ... but if you can't see that iTunes totally changed how a huge number of people get and access their music, it's probably because you refuse to.

      iTunes was the first widespread way that people could legally buy (or rip) digital music, and quickly managed to sell billions of songs. And the iPod radically changed how people accessed their music -- yes, there had been MP3 players, but in terms of making it widely usable by non-tech people. nothing else made quite the same impact. And, the iTunes software itself gives a nice, consistent way of dealing with this stuff. And, it also lets yo handle other media types through the exact same interface, and doesn't even require you to know what an MP3 is to use it.

      Other than Napster (which got shut down because it was largely being used to pirate songs), name me one way you can get digital music that has had anywhere near the impact of iTunes?

      And, yes, I will admit I've had iPods and iTunes since about 2001. But my mother-in-law is making noises about getting an iPod -- because even she understands what it is and what it's for. Do you think she'd know WTF a Zune is? I highly doubt it. And, at the time I chose to go the iPod/iTunes route, Windows Media Player was absolute crap -- I haven't touched it since, so I have no idea what it's like now.

      Sure, there are players out there which have some features that a few hard-core geeks want ... but quite honestly, I have only ever known one person who needed Ogg Vorbis support and I can't think of any other features that might be missing from the iPod. (Well, I hear people whine you can't easily copy songs off the iPod, but that's because Apple didn't want to get sued by the music industry, and because iTunes keeps extra information about songs in its database)

      I can see exactly why they gave him this award. I mean, if Paris Hilton could use an iPod, how hard could it be? Geeks don't like easy to use devices, but the rest of the consumer world does.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Sigh by msheekhah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They cut out massive costs for manufacturing and wound up making more on iTunes than they margin they made on CD's. Of course they'd love him.

      --
      Mark Anthony Collins
    4. Re:Sigh by GaratNW · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This.

      I am not particularly fond of Apple as a company. Their strong arm tactics drive me crazy, and the slavish fan base constantly going on about the innovation they supposedly do (with their devices). But...

      The true innovation that Apple has done though had nothing to do with their devices, but the platforms they created when they figured out how to handle the iTunes store, the App store, and those annoying walled gardens we all love to love and love to hate. For all the bad, it really has changed how people think about software and media distribution, and opened up opportunities to a lot of people, when the old distribution channels were only open to the chosen few.

      Their devices are not innovative, they are just the most polished and accessible devices pretty much available. No wonder they are so love/hate on Slashdot, but the rest of the world loves em. Combined with one of the most effective distribution channels ever made, it's a pretty remarkable combo for consumers.

  2. Uh, what? by AngryDeuce · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Steve Jobs contribution to music? What the hell has he done that's relevant to the Grammy's at all?

    When's the Vatican going to beatify him? Saint Steve, bringer of attractive electronic devices...it's a miracle!!!!! Quick, start busing cripples to Cupertino! Behold the power of STEVE!!!!

  3. Did Napster get one too? by VortexCortex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about Bit-Torrent, Napster, Limewire, etc? I've got no doubt they've done more to spread the joy of music, especially those who couldn't afford it...

  4. Wrong. by Picass0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The istore may not have been the first digital music store but they have made the biggest impact in changing the business model. You can thank Apple for being able to buy the one decent song on a CD for an affordable price.

    The iPod also has made it easier for people to have all of their favorites at their fingertips. Before that there were some crappy, poorly designed mp3 players by creative and that's about it. Your other option before ipod were walkman style cassette players.

    It's easy to be cynical about the music business, but in this case recognition is deserved.

    1. Re:Wrong. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You are dead wrong about the iPod and its predecessors. I despise the iPod and blame its popularity for the death of simple drag-and-drop, file/folder interfaces on mp3 players. Instead of just being able to scroll through my files like it's a hard disk, I have to contend with forced categories and mp3s getting lost because of mislabeling and on and on. Not all of us want to be treated like children by our music players.

  5. And Obama got a Nobel Prize... by sdguero · · Score: 2, Insightful

    These awards organizations are so politicized it no longer matters what their mission statements are. It's a popularity contest, namely in that they will give an award to whoever will make them the most popular, regardless of how much it tarnishes the organization.

    Pathetic.

  6. Seriously by LoudNoiseElitist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can we let this asshole die already?

  7. You are too hung up on word "recording" by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording"

    You are treating it as though it referred to the ENGINEERING of recording.

    If you think about what the statement says, it plainly is using "field of recording" to mean the business of recording, i.e. music industry.

    Then it makes sense, since Jobs helped the music industry actually make money from digital sale instead of fearing it.

    Also supporting that assertion, is the point that the awards body that defined that term is taking it that was as well. That is a plain indication that it's not just about recording engineering.

    You could also look at past recipients...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley