Imagine sitting in the audience, watching the man whose empire you helped build stand on stage. The spotlight hits him. He mentions your name. He smiles. And your entire business model collapses right there in front of thousands of people.
That’s exactly what happened to Derek Sivers during an Apple keynote, when Steve Jobs effectively sidelined CD Baby from the iTunes ecosystem. People love to frame this as classic Jobs behavior. They call him petty, cruel, and ruthless. They’re right, but they’re completely wrong about why.
Platforms don’t want partners. They want vassals.
If you’ve ever built a business on top of Amazon, Shopify, or the iOS App Store, you know the quiet fear that lives in the back of your mind. You think you’re a “valued partner” in the ecosystem. You think you’re helping the platform serve a niche market they can’t reach. You’re wrong. You’re just a placeholder.
Apple is celebrated as the savior of the independent artist. The iPod and iTunes were supposed to democratize music distribution. But look at what actually happened behind the curtain. Apple systematically targeted CD Baby—the company that acted as the digital gateway for indie artists. Why? Not because Jobs hated indie rock. Because CD Baby was an intermediary.
Apple wanted a direct relationship with the artists. It wanted lock-in. By cutting out CD Baby, Apple forced indie musicians to go directly through Apple, ensuring Apple controlled the pricing, the data, and the terms of distribution. This wasn’t an emotional outburst. It was a calculated purge.
If your moat depends on someone else’s castle, you don’t have a moat.
We see this exact pattern play out in Silicon Valley over and over. A platform opens up its APIs, invites developers to build, and fosters a thriving ecosystem. The moment the platform reaches critical mass, it either absorbs the most successful partners into its own product, or it cuts them off entirely. Apple is doing the exact same thing today with its App Store policies, taxing developers simply for existing.
The visceral sting of being publicly humiliated by a titan of industry hurts because it reminds us of our collective powerlessness. The thing you poured your heart into can be erased overnight by a ruthless algorithm or a billionaire’s offhand comment. But stop expecting tech giants to play fair. Fairness is a niche concept reserved for losers.
The real lesson here isn’t that Steve Jobs was a villain. The lesson is that if you are a middleman building on a third-party platform, you are a plug waiting to be pulled.
Never build a tollbooth on someone else’s highway. Build your own road.
FAQ
Q: Why did Apple target CD Baby specifically?
A: Apple didn't target CD Baby out of spite; it targeted the concept of a middleman. CD Baby was the gateway for indie music. Eliminating it meant Apple controlled the terms, pricing, and data of the independent channel.
Q: What does this mean for businesses built on platforms like Amazon or Shopify?
A: It means you are entirely at their mercy. If a platform decides you're siphoning their margins or fragmenting their control, they will cut you off without hesitation. Diversify your distribution channels or face the risk of sudden erasure.
Q: Was Steve Jobs just inherently evil in this situation?
A: 'Evil' implies malice. Jobs was ruthless. He prioritized Apple's control and profits over partnership fairness. It was a cold, hyper-competitive business strategy, not a cartoonish villain plot.