Beatweek Magazine Fall 2011 Buyers Guide Issue – Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Beatweek Magazine Fall 2011 Buyers Guide Issue

Every once in awhile we do a Buyers Guide issue where we highlight the best new gear for iPad, iPhone, and other tech products we know you like. We always search for the right person to put on the cover. The rules are steadfast: they have to give us an interview and they have to be an artist, a true rock star, not a businessman. Just this once, screw the rules.

In 1998, I was working at a desk job and not even a meaningful one. Then Steve Jobs came back to Apple and introduced something called the iMac. I was so inspired, I became a tech educator just so I could do something meaningful with his products. Then he brought out iPod and iTunes, and the next thing you know, Beatweek happened. Without knowing it, Steve wrote the blueprint for Beatweek Magazine, not me.

I only met the man once, and while it was cordial, I didn’t have to bother asking him for an interview; I knew what the answer would have been (see the cover story for the full story of our meeting). But seeing as how he’s either defined or redefined nearly every industry in which Beatweek participates, putting him on the cover of this issue as a tribute seems not just appropriate, but necessary.

So enjoy this Buyers Guide issue, which is full of the best new gear we’ve tested. We’ve also included our favorite interviews of 2011 so far: R.E.M. (who sadly just broke up), Ke$ha, Def Leppard, Panic at the Disco, Carlos Santana, and Avril Lavigne.

For the record, we’re not breaking all of our rules today: of all the rock stars I’ve met, and I’ve met a bunch of them over the years, Steve Jobs may have been the biggest. And he was an artist if ever there was one.

- Bill Palmer, Editor in Chief

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