The Jobs of Selling

Walter Isaacson is the official biographer of the late Steve Jobs. In 2011, soon after Steve's death, Isaacson's biography was released. In the book, Walter talks about the way Apple Computers, and iTunes, changed the music industry.

Being that iTunes has been now around, for more than 15 years, and is so ingrained into the way things are done, it can be hard to remember how the music industry used to operate.

To say the music industry was protective of its property would be quite an understatement. There were seven major record labels. And, if you wanted to use their music, you had to pay.

The poster boy for the industry's protectiveness (perhaps greed) was Lars Ulrich, the drummer for Metallica. Ulrich famously participated in litigation against people who used the file sharing service, Napster, to illegally download music.

The music industry had been printing money for a very one time. And, change would not come easy. So, when Apple Computers came up with the idea of iTunes, it was not an was sell.

In fact, Steve Jobs, himself, had to put on his sales hat, and met with the various players. In his book, Isaacson talks about how Jobs personally met with Roger Ames of Warner Music, and Doug Morris of the Universal Music Group, to sell them on the idea of iTunes.

There were many elements to the genius of Steve Jobs. And, selling was definitely one of them. Because, as I have repeated, ad nauseam, selling is one of the main jobs of the entrepreneur.