Steve Jobs revolutionized the music industry -- like hell

If anything, technology such as that developed by Steve Jobs (and others) has made it easier for anyone to record and distribute their own music.

And you can still easily get "any variety" of guitars, amps, whatever, for just as cheap as Sears or any other mass-producing company allowed you to. There is a massive, easily searched market of used gear.

Seriously, you can record and distribute an entire album for next to nothing - that used to be available ONLY to people who were connected to the "music industry" you are lamenting. That very industry is quickly becoming irrelevant due to technology, such as Garageband, etc.

Do you even play music? You sound like you have no clue.

Yes I play music. For all of my life. As an art form. As personal expression. For the love and joy of it. I don't consume music, I make it. Don't know much about Garageband, but know lots about rosin, and strings and frets and pads and reeds and dampers and hammers.

My point about Sears is that making music, in a DIY fashion, was once way more fashionable than it is today. Publishing sheet music was once a minor industry a hundred or so years ago -- about dead today. Even then, publishers were fond of taking advantage of composers. Anyone with money can run a printing press, but how many can compose something like Swipesy? Joplin only got like one percent of sales of the Maple Leaf Rag. Where did the rest of it go? To the thieves!

So yeah, Jobs contributed to the industry. Long live the fucking industry.

INDUSTRY. There are some of us who couldn't care less about the music industry. All fluff and no substance. Nowadays, even very little material production or material investment. Technology is really the culprit, but Jobs was very, very good at what he did. Compare him to Bill Gates, and you've got a god, huh?

I believe I understand JimJim from playing just about anywhere, anytime, and with anyone for years of my life. It's about love, about music becoming a major focus of one's life. The technology is unimportant; maybe even the instrument is less contribution than one thinks.

And, it's an excellent way of talking to myself without appearing crazy...

Music, such a solemn vow.
She and I were wed one night,
but I can't quite remember
if she smiled;
too dazzled to remember now.

"My point about Sears is that making music, in a DIY fashion, was once way more fashionable than it is today."

I don't know if you are just very out of touch with modern indie music, but the level of DIY music being made is massive, especially compared to whatever era you are speaking of.

Access to distribution of such music is more accessible than ever, to anyone, regardless of whether or not you have label or industry support.

Access to the means to record music is more affordable than ever, regardless of label or industry support.

And the ability to acquire and share music is more accessible and affordable than ever, in the history of recorded music. And yes, part of the is due to the innovation of Jobs and his evil ilk. You think people are using Ipods to acquire legally obtained music? Hell no. That device alone is more responsible for the free flow of music, being shared between enthusiasts, than any other innovation in decades.

I'm not trying to make this a personal attack by any means, but as someone who has also played music my whole life, and done it in a very DIY way, I am very, very grateful for the way things are now, as compared to how they used to be.