Benjamin franklin and albert einstein, this is the exclusive biography of steve jobs

Herding Cats
The key player to enlist was Doug Morris, head of the Universal Music Group. His domain 
included must-have artists such as U2, Eminem, and Mariah Carey, as well as powerful labels 
such as Motown and Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Morris was eager to talk. More than any other 
mogul, he was upset about piracy and fed up with the caliber of the technology people at the 
music companies. “It was like the Wild West,” Morris recalled. “No one was selling digital music, 
and it was awash with piracy. Everything we tried at the record companies was a failure. The 
difference in skill sets between the music folks and technologists is just huge.”
As Ames walked with Jobs to Morris’s office on Broadway he briefed Jobs on what to say. It 
worked. What impressed Morris was that Jobs tied everything together in a way that made things 
easy for the consumer and also safe for the record companies. “Steve did something brilliant,” said 
Morris. “He proposed this complete system: the iTunes Store, the music-management software, 
the iPod itself. It was so smooth. He had the whole package.”
Morris was convinced that Jobs had the technical vision that was lacking at the music 
companies. “Of course we have to rely on Steve Jobs to do this,” he told his own tech vice 
president, “because we don’t have anyone at Universal who knows anything about technology.” 
That did not make Universal’s technologists eager to work with Jobs, and Morris had to keep 
ordering them to surrender their objections and make a deal quickly. They were able to add a few 
more restrictions to FairPlay, the Apple system of digital rights management, so that a purchased 
song could not be spread to too many devices. But in general, they went along with the concept of 
the iTunes Store that Jobs had worked out with Ames and his Warner colleagues.
Morris was so smitten with Jobs that he called Jimmy Iovine, the fast-talking and brash chief of 
Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Iovine and Morris were best friends who had spoken every day for the 
past thirty years. “When I met Steve, I thought he was our savior, so I immediately brought Jimmy 
in to get his impression,” Morris recalled.
Jobs could be extraordinarily charming when he wanted to be, and he turned it on when Iovine 
flew out to Cupertino for a demo. “See how simple it is?” he asked Iovine. “Your tech folks are 
never going to do this. There’s no one at the music companies who can make it simple enough.”
Iovine called Morris right away. “This guy is unique!” he said. “You’re right. He’s got a 
turnkey solution.” They complained about how they had spent two years working with Sony, and 
it hadn’t gone anywhere. “Sony’s never going to figure things out,” he told Morris. They agreed to 
quit dealing with Sony and join with Apple instead. “How Sony missed this is completely mind-

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boggling to me, a historic fuckup,” Iovine said. “Steve would fire people if the divisions didn’t 
work together, but Sony’s divisions were at war with one another.”
Indeed Sony provided a clear counterexample to Apple. It had a consumer electronics division 
that made sleek products and a music division with beloved artists (including Bob Dylan). But 
because each division tried to protect its own interests, the company as a whole never got its act 
together to produce an end-to-end service.
Andy Lack, the new head of Sony music, had the unenviable task of negotiating with Jobs 
about whether Sony would sell its music in the iTunes Store. The irrepressible and savvy Lack had 
just come from a distinguished career in television journalism—a producer at CBS News and 
president of NBC—and he knew how to size people up and keep his sense of humor. He realized 
that, for Sony, selling its songs in the iTunes Store was both insane and necessary—which seemed 
to be the case with a lot of decisions in the music business. Apple would make out like a bandit, 
not just from its cut on song sales, but from driving the sale of iPods. Lack believed that since the 
music companies would be responsible for the success of the iPod, they should get a royalty from 
each device sold.
Jobs would agree with Lack in many of their conversations and claim that he wanted to be a 
true partner with the music companies. “Steve, you’ve got me if you just give me