Just as it is hard to get your head around how many 25 billion really is, it can also be challenging to remember record stores or where we purchased music when we had to leave our homes to get it. I wanted to get someone an actual CD for Valentine's Day and my first thought was "Amazon", another from-the-comfort-of-your-living-room vendor.
In addition to the convenience, I like iTunes for what it represents in collaboration. There are more than 26 million songs available on iTunes -- representing thousands of artists, record companies, songwriters and producers. After years of lawsuits and attempts to preclude on-line distribution of music, iTunes finally represented a win-win product that allowed consumers to legally obtain music at a reasonable price and artists to be compensated for their work.
Steve Jobs personally pitched the idea to record executives and major artists to gain approval to include their music in the on-line store. It wasn't easy work -- trying to explain why they should sign on to something that, if it resembled anything they knew, was most like what they had been fighting against. But passion, vision and illustrating the shared benefit finally won out.
When you think it is hard getting your project off the ground or getting a few parties together to agree on something, think of the task that Steve Jobs faced in 2000, and then look at where iTunes is today. Even the Beatles joined the party! Surely you can convince some colleagues to join yours.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
www.cnn.com/2013/02/06/tech/mobile/25-billion-itunes
Steve Jobs' Music Vision by Steve Kopper, Rolling Stone, October 7, 2011
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