Back in December, the Recording Academy made an announcement that Steve Jobs was going to be honored with the Trustees Award for "Outstanding contributions to the industry in a nonperforming capacity," to celebrate his achievements in the advancement of digital music distribution. When the iPod debuted alongside iTunes in 2001, it revolutionized the way that we buy, sell, and listen to music. Jobs' iTunes sells more than 12 million songs a day to people all around the world.
The Recording Academy's annual Special Merit Awards were held last night, ahead of the Grammys, and Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, was there to Steve Jobs' posthumous award.
He said, "On behalf of Steve's wife, Laurene, his children, and everyone at Apple, I'd like to thank you for honoring Steve with the Trustees Grammy Award. Steve was a visionary, a mentor, and a very close friend. I had the incredible honor of working with him for the last fifteen years. Accepting this award means so much to me because music meant so much to him. He told us that music shaped his life…it made him who he was. Everyone that knows Steve knows the profound impact that artists like Bob Dylan and The Beatles had on him. Steve was focused on bringing music to everyone in innovative ways. We talked about it every single day. When he introduced the iPod in 2001, people asked "Why is Apple making a music player?" His answer was simple: "We love music, and it's always good to do something you love. His family and I know that this Grammy would have been very special to him, so I thank you for honoring him today."
A fitting tribute for the man who did so much for the music industry. Jobs' posthumous grammy is the second award that he and Apple have received from the Recording Academy, after the Technical Grammy that Apple won in 2002.