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I think that Steve Jobs believes Apple saved the music industry. The recording industry executives just didn't get it and made bad decision after bad decisions and he showed them how it had to be done. They didn't admit they were wrong and then blamed Apple for lowering the value of the music instead of thanking them for salvaging what remains.
He watched Amazon copy exactly what Apple did in the book publishing industry and it was working well. Then he saw the publishing executives blame Amazon for all their problems. I'm sure he was just shaking his head.
When I look at his background with Pixar and Apple I see that he understands risk. With Pixar they make about 1 movie a year. They have to pick one story and then throw huge resources into animating it and promoting it to make sure it's a hit. They've delivered almost every movie. It's the same with developing any computer electronic gadget. Huge capital investment in R&D and one shot or you're a failure.
If I picture him sitting in a board room with a book publishing executive, doing their normal talking points about the enormous risks they're taking, I picture him wetting his pants laughing. I recall an Apple executive making a comment about the book publishing industry being dysfunctional, and I think that's closer to the truth.
I suspect that Apple tried to negotiate reason with the book publishers and wasn't getting anywhere so they signed a deal that was good for Apple. A guaranteed 30% for an electronic transaction is a very good deal for Apple and a very bad move by the book publishers.
I don't blame Steve Jobs for the BPH stupidity. Apple just bought time. I have enough other things to blames Steve Jobs for.
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