Linus Larsson: Steve Jobs seems petty intrigmakare in the resistance against Spotify

There were a couple of years, around 2010, when everything could have gone käpprätt to the forest for Spotify.

the Company's major problem was an extremely open secret: the Launch in the united states was difficult. The major record companies sat on crosswise. The thing that bothered them was that Spotify wanted to give away their music for free, albeit with advertising breaks and restrictions. At the same time, this was the whole basis of Spotify's existence. First, it would be free, then would the listeners be persuaded to start paying.

Perhaps not so surprising that the old world's record labels were skeptical, those who had built their empires around to sell various forms of plastic with the recorded sound. But a book which will be released shortly aimed the headlamp against another Spotifyskeptiker with a lot of power: Steve Jobs, Apple's founder and ceo, who at this time dominated the US digital music world with Itunes. Where sold the songs individually for download, Spotify gave the ability to stream everything to the same price.

”Spotify inside” (Albert Bonniers förlag) describes the authors Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud how Steve Jobs pressured, above all Universal, one of the world's skivbolagsbjässar, to slow down. Spotify would not get the stream its music in the united states, at least not until Apple has had time to hone his own music store in order to better meet the threat. Steve Jobs often call the Universal's executives: ”In the talks paints he Spotify the free offer as a threat to their business.”

And it continues. For the close relationship between Apple and Universal to give Steve Jobs a special power. Apple is using its coffers to musikmarknadsföring and Jobs stated to send signals that he is interested in buying the whole Universal. Not to talk about the importance of sales through Itunes – Steve Jobs simply have very much to say in the music world. ”Now suggests Steve Jobs, according to a source with good insight, that he is going to strangle the flood of money, if not Universal, do as he wants. One theory is that he at least wants to delay Spotify's arrival until he has presented the Itunes new cloud service.”

beautiful picture of the precious innovation and healthy competition, rather of gerrymandering and taktiserande. If the picture in the book is true so tried to not Apple in the first place win by being best but by twisting the arm of the record label in order to eliminate a threat.

It is not a beautiful picture of the precious innovation and healthy competition.

the Event also shows how quickly the roles can change. A few years previously, it had been Apple which moved by releasing the Ipod and start selling downloaded music via Itunes. But time went by and soon the Apple was the new established. Suddenly there was Jobs there and fought to preserve the existing, a bit like a sleepy skivbolagsboss in 1900-the end of that time wanted to forget that the internet existed and continue to sell cds. Change had become the Steve Jobs enemy. ”I don't understand why you would want to give away your music for free”, which he will have said to the record companies.

Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Steve Jobs seems to have become the closest mythologized in the circuits . ”He has called me and flåsat in the handset”, stated Daniel Ek have said to a colleague, and certified that it was Steve Jobs on the other end of the line: ”I know that it is he.” It seems likely that he was joking. But it also says a lot about how bottenfruset it was between the two. It never managed to change. Steve Jobs died in 2011, before the two ever met.