The fun part about reading articles like this is it leaves the reader to play armchair Steve Jobs based more on their own opinion of what they think Steve Jobs was trying to say.

Did he say this because he wanted to see what sort of energy the team had?

An expensive yet utterly lackluster song from a famous director might signal a company that has no real vision.

An inexpensive cheap sound-tech song might signal a team willing to just follow directions and not think.

A comically bad song might indicate a team that isn't serious.

A song from one of Steve's favorite artists might signal a team too eager to please.

Personally, if it was me and I was given another chance I would have gone all out, win or die style and begged/pleaded/bribed someone of actual real world talent to come in and play _during_ the next presentation. Someone with a unique style and talent, real world fame would be absolutely immaterial since Steve has already met everyone famous. Someone like Kaki King (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UqV_5rVTNc).

Part of being a good communicator is being relatable. This worked so well with Steve because his results spoke for themselves. The is the important detail for anyone who wants to emulate his style. He was given the privilege of communicating like a visionary because of the results he achieved, not the other way around.

I would have gone for something classic (and easy) -- Carl Sagan ("butt-head astronomer", to Apple) talking, rather than music.

Pretty sure Steve was just saying no. If it wasn't the music, it would have been something else.

Steve had a way of saying that ideas weren't good enough until suddenly they were... but then they were his.

But that way of saying wasn't usually diplomatic. The whole thing sounds cheerfully implausible to me.

I think Cringley missed the subtlety of "come back with music" is a nice way of saying "your pitch sucks"

Subtlety? Are we thinking of the same Steve Jobs?

Perhaps he was a song away.

But not that song.

Watch Star Wars sometime without the John Williams. Perhaps it would still have had impact at the time, I don't know, but it wouldn't have been the lasting impact it has had. The right music legitimizes and greatly strengthens.

Agreed, but this isn't John Williams. Frankly, it sounds like muzak. I don't know exactly what Jobs would have said, but I'm pretty sure his taste was more discriminating than that.

At first I figured it was probably a masterful composer who just wasn't putting a lot of effort into this one-off music video. But then I realize David Feinman's most recognized work is probably "Ace Ventura - When Nature Calls": http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1026545/

Are you fucking kidding me? You're trying to score a moon landing and trying to impress Steve Jobs and... you bring out the composer to an Ace Ventura sequel?!?

Good luck, Cringely. Can't imagine any realistic and high probablility mission that cheap wouldn't already be funded, but what do I know.

I'd think that there are a couple other tech magnates besides Jobs and Gates that Cringely could contact.

Cringely is such a hack.

Same guy who said: 1) Tim Cook would be fired by the end of the year (where it appears Tim Cook is still one of the best CEOs in the world right now; the biggest problem with Apple is their legacy war with Google left over from Steve Jobs) 2) IBM's problem was mistreating their US unionized employees

etc.

My first reaction was that this was incredibly lame of Steve: "I like music, so I won't consider any pitches without music!"

After I thought about it, I think it's probably more likely that Steve thought they needed a pitch with more popular appeal if they were going to attract enough other investors and generate enough public interest for it to be worth putting Apple's name on.

Or not. By all accounts Steve was pretty direct, and if all he said was "come back with music" maybe he wasn't thinking of anything besides wanting to hear a song. :)

only in the valley will people take you seriously when you're telling them you wanna go to the moon...

Note that by "going to the moon" he actually means "sponsoring a robot to go to the moon"...

This is satire, right? Please tell me this is a joke.

This is a joke.