Every once in a while, a story comes along so monumentally stupid, so thoroughly and transparently an attention grab, it takes two people to whine about it properly. Such is the case with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences giving Steve Jobs a special “Trustees Award” Grammy. For this one, it’s going to take a tag team of colossal proportions, with the reigning champions “StoneGold” Jeremy Goldstone and Tom “Llorón Grande” Wyrick picking this one apart. Take it away, Tom.
Tom: I almost don’t even know where to begin with this one. I mean, first of all, we are talking about the same recording industry that fought tooth and nail to preserve their existing business model with the rise of digital music, right? Here’s just one example of what I mean, from mid 2008. Is this their way of admitting they were wrong, after all?
Jeremy: We are talking about the same organization that gave Jethro Tull an award for Best Heavy Metal Album. But I think this is less of an apology, more “He’s dead, so he can’t complain if we co-opt him.” If they can figure out a way to do it, they’ll try to start the meme that Jobs actually created a way that entire albums could be sold, not a track at a time, where all the money will go directly to the record labels instead of having to slice off a piece to iTunes. That, and the next iPhone plays CDs! This may be the first case of the Grammys giving an award posthumously to someone who screwed over the record industry, as opposed to someone who got screwed over by it.
Where's his Grammy?
Tom: Well, I suppose when they were confronted with the reality of their listener-base primarily using physical CDs as masters to rip MP3 files from for actual daily use, they had to acknowledge the change somehow. Maybe they reasoned it cost less to make one award for Jobs than two for the Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker duo? Alternately, they might just add a new award category of “Guys we’re glad are finally dead” and make his Grammy the first under the heading? Regardless, the truth is, the record labels would stand to make a lot more money from iTunes if they’d start lowering prices.
Jeremy: At least Jobs figured out a way to monetize and make the industry some money, as opposed to Fanning and Parker. As much as there are record executives smiling through gritted teeth at the thought of giving Jobs this award, he’s the Messiah compared to straight-up P2P filesharing. They aren’t giving out awards to Rapidshare. But no doubt, this is a man that three years ago, they only would have given an award to if it were the bait in an elaborate Scooby Doo-style trap. They come not to praise Jobs, but to steal a little of his death fame while it’s still worth something and get some nerds to watch their crummy awards show.
They would have gotten away with it too...
Tom: True, but even in the case of free P2P sharing, the shared content doesn’t appear out of thin air. At least some of the users buy albums to use as source material to share. Plus, there’s the secondary effect of downloaders discovering new artists they like, and that realization driving them to purchase other releases by those musicians. (These days, anyone can make a professional quality recording in their own basement if they invest in the right equipment and learn how to use it properly. Marketing and PR is one of the major labels’ biggest benefits they can offer a musician. P2P sharing does a lot of that marketing for them, whether or not they’re willing to admit it or put a price tag on its value.) Maybe the iPod is really Apple’s biggest contribution to the industry — not iTunes itself? Surely, its huge success created a corresponding increase in interest in music. That means, unfortunately, the engineers and designers who really made the device possible are ignored, in favor of a deceased guy who took all the credit.
Jeremy: Thomas Edison says boo hoo. How many people know the name John Kruesi? Heck, I had to look him up just now. End of the day though, Jobs is just doing what famous dead people do — lending credence to random organizations who want to invoke their name, because they’re too dead to say otherwise. But that won’t stop us from complaining about it!
Comments are closed.