And the iPod became irrelevant as soon as the mobile phone became popular. Even the Roku which was originally created by Netflix and spun off as a company would have failed as a “Netflix box”
The iPod was dominant for almost a decade, without it there would be no iPhone. It is understandable to forget Galileo or Kepler once you get a Newton, but the iPod was absolutely iconic, and once again, the iTunes Store did much to eliminate music piracy.
It goes to show that once a petty crime becomes widespread and normalized among consumers, it becomes a business problem for savvy companies to take advantage. Likewise, Steam, despite its DRM and other hassles, wiped out game piracy for some time. Of course, that same form of piracy is making a resurgence, partly because the video game platform space has become balkanized, annoying users who don't want to subscribe to the stores of EA, Ubisoft, Epic, et al. Much like what we may be seeing with movie and TV content.
Honestly, piracy for video games became less relevant because most of the game revenue comes from locked down platforms - mobile and consoles. Also, much of the revenue of from games these days come from in app purchases.
Perhaps the rise of mobile gaming and decline of PC gaming in favor of consoles (if that’s actually happening at all) still substantiates my narrative that technology and businesses arise to address the needs causing piracy. So you’re agreeing with me.
You keep talking about sales when I’m talking about impact on music piracy, the music industry in general, and cultural impact. I hardly think Jobs thought purely in sales and not the latter.
As far as “bought digital music” vs music not bought from iTunes right before the iPhone came out, SJ himself said that most music on iPods were not bought from iTunes:
This was originally posted on Apple’s front page when Jobs was trying to convince the record labels to allow everyone to sell DRM free music (it happened a couple of years later)
> Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM
Perhaps I've over-credited the iTunes Store's impact on music piracy, so I will concede that point. But for whatever reason, after the revolutions unleashed by the iPod, and the subsequent rise of Spotify and other paid legal music streaming services, music piracy is just not as significant as it was in the decade. So either these technologies were instrumental to stopping it, or consumers just moved on for whatever reason. Perhaps the same will happen to movies and television piracy, once consumers get over services/platforms fatigue.
I would give most of the credit for piracy going down in music to mobile phones where especially with the iPhone, there is no method to add music not bought from iTunes without using a computer.
Streaming music is a much better experience. Jobs was right, convenience beats free.
It’s the same way for video. If I told a normal person how they could save a few bucks by getting video for free going through the steps that people hear or suggesting, they would look at me like I’m crazy. You can usually find someone to give you their streaming account.
