Steve Jobs' Six Best Music Innovations

Apple (the Beatles record label) once sued Apple (the computer corporation). After initial squabbles over the right to name their companies after the same fruit, the two agreed that all was good as long as Steve Jobs and crew never entered the music business. As you can probably guess, as you likely read this on your MacBook while charging your iPod and listening to background music on iTunes at this very moment, there was a breach somewhere along the lines. In honor of Steve Jobs' passing last week, here are the Apple visionary's six best innovations in music.

6. USB ports
Apple did not invent USB, but the company was the first to include USB ports on home computers. Ever since, these ports have become an integral part of modern music. Mp3 players, recording interfaces, portable hard drives stocked with a lifetime supply of obscure dub remixes; USB (or its more intense big brother, Firewire) is essential in syncing our computers with our analog, real-life music experiences.

5. iTunes
From an industry standpoint, digital music has always been tricky. See: Napster, Metallica, the death of the music industry as a whole. The beauty of iTunes is its overarching ease - it gave labels of all sizes a simple way to distribute music and listeners at most levels of computer proficiency an opportunity to absorb, purchase, and organize their tunes. Little bonuses - podcasts, the Genius function, a totally sweet visualizer - make the enjoyment and discovery processes surprisingly fulfilling.

4. Garage Band
Many recording studio owners, engineers, and producers have spent the better part of twenty years freaking out about becoming obsolete. While these professionals generally have an advantage in the skill department, they've lost a bit of their edge with the boom of home recording products that have been stealthily improving over the years. GarageBand is by no means as powerful of a music production tool as ProTools or its competitors, but it's a stellar introduction to the often intimidating process of recording. The fact that it comes standard on all current Mac computers puts its capabilities in more hands than any similar program to date. With enough time and energy at your disposal, you can even use GarageBand to make a hit. Remember "Fireflies", the Postal Service-aping single by Owl City? The track was produced on GarageBand - we suggest that dude uses the money he saved on recording software to buy Ben Gibbard a pony.