Steve Jobs on internet music

There's a good interview in Rolling Stone with Steve Jobs talking about Apple's experience in negotiating with the record companies while setting up the iTunes Music Store and in his remarkably common-sense view of what the issues are facing the music industry.

"People don't want to buy their music as a subscription. They bought 45s, then they bought LPs, they bought cassettes, they bought 8-tracks, then they bought CDs. They're going to want to buy downloads.

Our position from the beginning has been that eighty percent of the people stealing music online don't really want to be thieves. But that is such a compelling way to get music. It's instant gratification. You don't have to go to the record store; the music's already digitized, so you don't have to rip the CD. It's so compelling that people are willing to become thieves to do it. But to tell them that they should stop being thieves -- without a legal alternative that offers those same benefits -- rings hollow."

Worth a read.