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Eddy Cue accepts Grammy Trustee Award for Steve Jobs
Between Adele's big night and artists paying tribute to Whitney Houston, you may have missed that Steve Jobs won a Grammy Award last night.
Jobs was the recipient of a Trustees Award for his "innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store," which "revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased," according to The Recording Academy.
Apple's Head of iTunes Eddy Cue accepted the award for Jobs, who died on Oct. 5, 2011 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. "Music meant so much to him," Cue said. "Music shaped his life, it made him who he was."
Jobs was also included in last night's "In Memoriam" slideshow, an annual portion of the Grammy's remembering lives lost in the industry in the past year. He was listed as a "digital music pioneer."
Several on Twitter took notice of this.
"Wow, sign of the times. Steve Jobs included In Memoriam because he was a digital music pioneer..." said Sarah-Ann Soffer, a PR manager in New York.
Others found irony in the mention.
"Honoring Steve Jobs yet the RIAA fought digital music tooth and nail," Bobby Dunlap wrote.
"Wait! Did they just call Steve Jobs a digital music pioneer? The same people that wanted to stop him from 'destroying' the industry? #irony," added Emily Weiner.
This morning, Nate Lanxon, the editor of Wired.co.uk, expressed support for Jobs's Grammy.
"Glad Steve Jobs got a Grammy. He's done more for the music industry over the last decade than the music industry did itself," Lanxon said.
It was first announced in December that Jobs would win the award. Discussion started then on Google+ on whether he deserved the award and it continues today. The official Grammy website describes the Trustees Award as given to individuals who make "significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording."
This wasn't the first Grammy award honoring Apple's contributions to the music industry. The company also received a technical Grammy in 2002 for its computer technology's role revolutionizing the music industry, as reported by CNET.
Related:
- Sony hikes Whitney Houston album prices online
- Apple tries to ban realistic Steve Jobs action figure
- Steve Jobs to receive honorary Grammy
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Leave a Comment:
What a load of crap. If you want to honor a "pioneer" in digital music, where are the accolades for James Russell? (I suggest looking him up if you're not familiar with the name -- he was the fundamental scientist behind digital music.)
Um there's a difference between a pioneer and someone who was just popular/successfull. Jobs was the latter. Napster was a way bigger pioneer in digital music distribution than Apple was.
And WOW only Jobs would be able to recieve credit for the whole iTunes/iPod ecosystem that were already well in their advanced stages of development prior to him coming to Apple.
Shawn Fanning was far more of a pioneer and did more for digital music downloading than Jobs did. Jobs took the work of others and leveraged it into a business scheme. A Grammy? Seriously? He may deserve a business marketing award, but did NOTHING like the musicians who produce a product rather than a service.
Grammy's - you jumped the shark.
LMAO. What a steaming load of crap. I guess the guy who invented recorded music and the phonograph should have gotten a Grammy too. But didn't. And the guy who invented the radio should have gotten one. But didn't. And the guy who dreamed up the internet. And the guy who came up with 8 track. And the guy who came up with magnetic tape. But who gets it? Some ego jerk who used someone else's talents.